Slope stability analysis is a branch of ground engineering science where there are a number of significant uncertainties. Although probabilistic slope stability analysis is an option in most commercial software, the use of this method is not common in practice. Apart from the ability of the probabilistic method to assess the impact of uncertainties on slope stability, it can also be used as a tool to optimise the geotechnical site investigation program. The first-order second-moment approximation of the Taylor series method is one of the probabilistic slope stability methods that determines the relative contribution of uncertainty projected by each component random variable. For a slope with a sequence of different geological units, each unit can be modelled as having several random variables such as cohesion and friction angle. A geological unit whose random variables are responsible for the greatest contribution to the uncertainty in the Factor of Safety (FS) will be the most controlling unit. This characteristic can be used to design geotechnical site investigation programs in order to minimise the uncertainties in these controlling units, which will enhance the Reliability Index of the computed FS.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.