Unified criterion for calculating the safety factor of slope stability for earth dams

Abstract

Methods employing local or general safety factors are presently used when analyzing the stability of dam slopes. The local factors, representing the ratio of the ultimate to the actual stresses at points in the dam body, make it possible to construct lines of equal safety factors from the results of calculating the stress and strain states and to make a qualitative analysis of the degree of stability of the dam. The general safety factors give a quantitative evaluation of this degree of stability. In the standards and in design practice there is the firmly entrenched concept that stability is calculated to obtain a quantitative evaluation of the degree of slope stability, i.e., the safety factor (ksaf). Numerous methods for determining ksa f exist.