Stability Charts for Pseudostatic Stability Analysis of Rock Slopes Using the Nonlinear Hoek–Brown Strength Reduction Technique

Abstract

This paper presents a set of stability charts for the stability assessment of rock slopes that satisfy the Hoek–Brown (HB) criterion under various seismic loading conditions. The nonlinear Hoek–Brown strength reduction technique is used to conduct pseudostatic stability analysis of rock slopes subjected to horizontal seismic excitation. Based on an extensive parametric study, first, a set of stability charts with a slope angle of β = 45° under static and pseudostatic conditions are proposed by using ABAQUS 6.10 software. Second, the slope angle weighting factor (fβ) and the seismic weighting factor (fkh) are adopted to characterize the influence of slope angle (β) and horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient (kh) on the rock slope stability. Finally, the reliability of the proposed charts was validated by three typical examples and two case studies, and the results show that the values of the factor of safety (FOS) obtained from the proposed charts are consistent with the values from other methods. The proposed charts provide an efficient and convenient way to determine the FOS of rock slopes directly from the rock mass properties (γ and σci), the HB parameters (mi and GSI), the slope geometry (H and β), and the horizontal seismic coefficients (kh).

Stability analysis of ultra-high and steep reinforced soil fills slopes based on strength reduction

“…Sun et al proposed a set of charts to evaluate the stability of rock slopes under various seismic loading conditions that meet the Hoek Brown criterion. The safety factor obtained through this chart is consistent with other methods [11]. Sysala et al proposed an improved shear strength reduction method (MSSR) and its optimized variant (OPT-MSSR).…”

Analysing Slope Stability in Response to Blast-Induced Dynamic Loading by Pseudo-Static Approach

“…The RS2 software is employed to ascertain the Critical Strength Reduction Factor (CSRF) and identify the CSS of the slope. The CSRF represents the FoS 16,20 . This software utilises the FEM in conjunction with the shear strength reduction method.…”

“…constant equivalent-static acceleration 1,15,16 . Existing literature predominantly focuses on the influence of horizontal seismic acceleration on slope stability with limited attention given to the effects of vertical acceleration on slope failures [15][16][17][18][19][20][21] .…”

“…constant equivalent-static acceleration 1,15,16 . Existing literature predominantly focuses on the influence of horizontal seismic acceleration on slope stability with limited attention given to the effects of vertical acceleration on slope failures [15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . In the study conducted by Zhang et al, the impact of vertical acceleration on the stability of three-dimensional homogeneous slopes was explored 22 .…”