• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.1264-1270
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• 2010

In this study, the effects of slope inclination and rainfall on weathered soil slope stability were investigated for current cut soil slope design criteria. A series of slope stability analysis was performed on the slopes with the same height (5m), but different inclinations (1:0.8, 1:1, 1:1.2, 1:1.5, 1:2). Seepage analysis was also conducted to examine the rainfall effects directly and compare the combined seepage and slope stability analysis results with the slope stability analysis results for rainy season from the current cut soil slope design criteria. Typical properties for weathered soils were used in both the slope and seepage analysis. The analysis results showed that, for the slopes much steeper than the standard slopes, the factor of safety criteria were satisfied. Therefore, it appears that the slope designs by current cut soil slope design criteria lead to conservative results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.3-34
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• 1998

The stability condition of rock slopes is greatly affected by the geometry and strength parameters of discontinuities in the rock masses. Rock slopes Involving movement of rock blocks on discontinuities are failed by one or combination of the three basic failure modes-plane, wedge, and toppling. In rock mechanics, practically all the parameters such as the joint set characteristics, the rock strength properties, and the loading conditions are always subject to a degree of uncertainty. Therefore, a reasonable assessment of the rock slope stability has to include the excavation of the multi-failure modes, the consideration of uncertainties of discontinuity characteristics, and the decision on stabilization measures with favorable cost conditions. This study was performed to provide a new numerical model of the deterministic analysis, reliability analysis, and reliability-based optimization for rock slope stability. The sensitivity analysis was carried out to verify proposed method and developed program; the parameters needed for sensitivity analysis are design variables, the variability of discontinuity properties (orientation and strength of discontinuities), the loading conditions, and rock slope geometry properties. The design variables to be optimized by the reliability-based optimization include the cutting angle, the support pressure, and the slope direction. The variability in orientations and friction angle of discontinuities, which can not be considered in the deterministic analysis, has a greatly influenced on the rock slope stability. The stability of rock slopes considering three basic failure modes is more influenced by the selection of slope direction than any other design variables. When either plane or wedge failure is dominant, the support system is more useful than the excavation as a stabilization method. However, the excavation method is more suitable when toppling failure is dominant. The case study shows that the developed reliability-based optimization model can reasonably assess the stability of rock slopes and reduce the construction cost.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.51-57
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• 2007

In the design of slopes during rainfall, the groundwater level is assumed to be located at the ground surface, based on the change in characteristics of rainfall. In addition, stability investigations are performed for large cut slopes in the design of slopes while standard inclinations specified in the design criteria are applied for the slopes that stability investigations are not performed. In spite of the strengthened criteria of groundwater location, slope failures continuously occur during heavy rainfall, regardless of magnitude of slopes. In order to investigate the cause of the failures, stability investigations have been performed on standard inclination of slopes suggested in the design criteria for both dry and rainfall cases by ground condition in this research. Despite that standard inclination of slopes specified in the design criteria should be stable for both dry and rainfall cases, the results show that standard factor of safety has not been obtained in many cases; more than 50% of total cases for dry cases and more than 65% of total cases for rainfall case. Based on the results, this paper indicates the problems in the current design criteria and proposes the plans for establishment of countermeasure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.59-76
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• 2016

The non-linear Hoek-Brown failure criterion has been widely accepted and applied to evaluate the stability of rock slopes under plane-strain conditions. This paper presents a kinematic approach of limit analysis to assessing the static and seismic stability of three-dimensional (3D) rock slopes using the generalized Hoek-Brown failure criterion. A tangential technique is employed to obtain the equivalent Mohr-Coulomb strength parameters of rock material from the generalized Hoek-Brown criterion. The least upper bounds to the stability number are obtained in an optimization procedure and presented in the form of graphs and tables for a wide range of parameters. The calculated results demonstrate the influences of 3D geometrical constraint, non-linear strength parameters and seismic acceleration on the stability number and equivalent strength parameters. The presented upper-bound solutions can be used for preliminary assessment on the 3D rock slope stability in design and assessing other solutions from the developing methods in the stability analysis of 3D rock slopes.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.545-560
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• 2014

For slope stability analysis, an alternative to the classical limit equilibrium method (LEM) of slices is the shear strength reduction method (SRM), which can be integrated into finite element analysis or finite difference analysis. Recently, probabilistic analysis of earth slopes has been very attractive because it is capable to take the soil uncertainty into account. However, the SRM is less commonly extended to probabilistic framework compared to a variety of probabilistic LEM analysis of earth slopes. To overcome some limitations that hinder the development of probabilistic SRM stability analysis, a new procedure based on recursive algorithm FORM with sensitivity analysis in the space of original variables is proposed. It can be used to deal with correlated non-normal variables subjected to implicit limit state surface. Using the proposed approach, a probabilistic finite element analysis of the stability of an existing earth dam is carried out in this paper.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.77-88
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• 2000

The goal of this study is to assess the spatial distribution of natural slopes and cutting slopes under would-be development. For this goal, a quantitative slope stability analysis method using GIS integrated with a computer program was developed. Through field investigations, the discontinuity parameters were collected such as orientation of discontinuity, persistence, spacing, JRC, JCS, and water depth. The distributions were interpolated from the ordinary kriging method in ARC/INFO GIS after variogram analysis. The layers showing all parameters needed for limit equilibrium analysis were constructed. The final layer using GIS works composed of 162,352 polygons, that is, unit slopes. The rock slope stability analysis program was coded by C++ language. This program can calculate geometrical vectors related to rock block failures using input orientation data and direction and dimension of strength to occur failure. Also, this can calculate shear strength of joints through empirical equations and quantitative factors of safety. This methodology was applied to the study area which is located in Jaecheon city and Danyang-gun of the northeastern Keumsu is about 135$km^2$. As a result, the study area was entirely stable but unstable, that is, factor of safety less than 1.0dominantly at the slopes near Keumsil, Daejangri, Keumsungmyun and Sojugol, Mt. Dongsan, Juksongmyun by the natural slope stability analysis. Assuming the cutting slope showing the same direction immediate, and quantitative analysis of factors of safety for a regional area could be conducted through GIS integrated with a computer program of limit equilibrium.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.237-254
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• 2017

Estimation of slope stability is a very important task in geotechnical engineering. However, its estimation using conventional and soft computing methods has several drawbacks. Use of conventional limit equilibrium methods for the evaluation of slope stability is very tedious and time consuming, while the use of soft computing approaches like Artificial Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic are black box approaches. Multiple Regression (MR) analysis provides an alternative to conventional and soft computing methods, for the evaluation of slope stability. MR models provide a simplified equation, which can be used to calculate critical factor of safety of slopes without adopting any iterative procedure, thereby reducing the time and complexity involved in the evaluation of slope stability. In the present study, a multiple regression model has been developed and tested its accuracy in the estimation of slope stability using real field data. Here, two separate multiple regression models have been developed for dry and wet slopes. Further, the accuracy of these developed models have been compared and validated with respect to conventional limit equilibrium methods in terms of Mean Square Error (MSE) & Coefficient of determination ($R^2$). As the developed MR models here are not based on any region specific data and covers wide range of parametric variations, they can be directly applied to any real slopes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.63-79
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• 2007

Several remedial works were attempted to stabilize the collapsed area of the inlet slopes of diversion tunnel, but prevention of any further movement was being only carried out at beginning stage by filling the area with aggregates and rock debris, after several cracks had been initiated and developed around the area. The extra specialty developed folding zone is consisted with highly weathered Greywacke and Black shale. The suggested solution is to improve the properties of the rock mass of failed area by choosing the optimum level of reinforcement through the increment of slope rock support design so as to control the movement of slopes during the re-excavation. The Bakun hydroelectric project includes the construction of a hydroelectric power plant with an installed capacity of 2,520MW and a power transmission system connecting to the existing transmission networks in Sarawak and Western Malaysia. The power station will consist of a 210m height Concrete Faced Rockfill Dam. During the construction of the dam and the power facilities the Balui River has to be diverted of the tunnels is 12m and the tunnel width is 16m at the portal area. This paper describes the stability analysis and design methods for the open cut rock slopes in the inlet area of the diversion tunnels. The geotechnical parameters employed in stability calculations were given as a function of four defined Rock Mass Type (RMT) which were based on RMR system from Bieniawski. The stability calculations procedure of the rock slopes are divided into two stages. In the first stage, it is calculated for the stability of each "global" slope without any rock support and shotcrete system. In the second stage, it is calculated for each "local" slope stability with berms and supported with rock bolts and shotcrete. The monitoring instrumentation was performed continuously and some of the design modification was carried out in order to increase the safety of failed area based on the unforeseen geological risks during the open cut excavation.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.16 no.1 s.47
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• pp.45-58
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• 2006

A new computer program SLOPILE(Ver 3.0) is developed to analyze stability of slopes containing an earth retention system composing of piles, nails and anchors. SLOPILE(Ver 3.0) can calculate the slope stability for both planar failure surfaces in infinite slopes and arc failure surfaces. In order to investigate a design adaptability of SLOPILE(Ver 3.0), analysis results of TALREN and SLOPE/W programs are compared with that of SLOPILE(Ver 3.0). SLOPILE(Ver 3.0) can calculate the slopes reinforced by earth retention system such as piles, nails and anchors. But, TALREN and SLOPE/W can not calculate the slope reinforced by piles. As a analysis result of the example case, SLOPILE(Ver 3.0) is accuracy and suitable program for the stability analysis of slopes reinforced by earth retention system. Therefore, SLOPILE(Ver 3.0) is the most suitable program to analyze the slope reinforced by the earth retention system.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.71-86
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• 2022

In Taiwan, an efficient approach for enhancing the stability of colluvium slopes is the drilled shaft method. For slopes with drilled shafts, the soil arching effect is one of the primary factors influencing slope stability and intertwines to the failure mechanism of the pile-soil system. In this study, the contribution of soil arching effect to slope stability is evaluated using the FEM software (Plaxis 3D) with the built-in strength reduction technique. The result indicates the depth of the failure surface is influenced by the S/D ratio (the distance to the diameter of piles), which can reflect the contribution of the soil arching effect to soil stability. When α (rock inclination angles)=β (slope angles) is considered and the S/D ratio=4, the failure surface of the slope is not significantly influenced by the piles. Overall, the soil arching effect is more significant on α=β, especially for the steep slopes. Additionally, the soil arching effect has been included in the proposed stability charts. The proposed charts were validated through two case studies, including that of the well-known Woo-Wan-Chai field in Taiwan. The differences in safety factor (FoS) values between the referenced literature and this study was approximately 4.9%.