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PROBABILISTIC SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSIS OF REINFORCED SLOPES BY FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
Session: Uncertainty, Reliability, and Risk / Incertitude, fiabilité, et risque
Ning Luo, Queen's University (Canada)
Richard J. Bathurst, Royal Military College of Canada (Canada)
Sina Javankhoshdel, Queen's University (Canada)
A probabilistic slope stability analysis tool for geosynthetic reinforced slopes (and embankments) that combines shear strength reduction method (SSR) with probability theory was developed using a finite element method (FEM) source code for unreinforced slopes. The original numerical model in combination with the shear strength reduction method and Monte Carlo simulation (MC) was first used to compute probability of failure and factor of safety for simple unreinforced slopes with purely cohesive and cohesive-frictional soil. The results are compared to those from combined limit equilibrium method (LEM) and probability theory recently published in the literature. The results are shown to be in good agreement. The validated FEM code was then modified to investigate reinforced slope cases. To verify the new code, a general reinforced slope case was examined using the new program and the FEM software package SIGMA/W. Displacements and reinforcement strains calculated using both programs agreed well. The utility of the new code is demonstrated by a number of examples. The general approach applied to reinforced soil slopes is novel and offers a powerful tool to relate conventional notions of factor of safety for reinforced soil slopes to margins of safety described by more meaningful probability of failure.
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