• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.125-140
• /
• 2010

Slope stability analysis of the right abutment of a railway bridge proposed at about 350 m above the ground level, crossing a river and connecting two huge hillocks in the Himalayas, India is presented in this paper. The site is located in a highly active seismic zone. The rock slopes are intensely jointed and the joint spacing and orientation are varying at different locations. Static slope stability of the rock slope is studied using equivalent continuum approach through the most commonly used commercial numerical tools like FLAC and SLOPE/W of GEOSTUDIO. The factor of safety for the slope under static conditions was 1.88 and it was reduced by 46% with the application of earthquake loads in pseudo-static analysis. The results obtained from the slope stability analyses confirmed the global stability of the slope. However, it is very likely that there could be possibility of wedge failures at some of the pier locations. This paper also presents the results from kinematics of right abutment slope for the wedge failure analysis based on stereographic projections. Based on the kinematics, it is recommended to flatten the slope from 50o to 43o to avoid wedge failures at all pier locations.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.187-195
• /
• 2023

Intensive rainfall during the summer season in Korea has triggered numerous devastating landslides outside of downtown in mountainous areas. The 2D slope stability analysis that is generally used for cut slopes and embankments is inadequate to model slope failure in mountainous areas. This paper presents a new 3D slope stability formulation using the global sliding vector in the limit equilibrium method, and it uses an ellipsoidal slip surface for static and quasi-static analyses. The slip surface's flexibility of the ellipsoid shape gives a lower FS than the spherical failure shape in the Fellenius, Bishop, and Janbu's simplified methods. The increasing sub-columns of each column tend to increase the FS and converge to a steady value. The symmetrical geometric conditions of the convex turning corners do not indicate symmetrical failure of the surface in 3D analysis. Pseudo-static analysis shows that the horizontal seismic force decreases the FS and increases the mass volume at the critical failure state. The stability index takes the FS and corresponding sliding mass into consideration to assess the potential risk of slope failure in complex mountainous terrain. It is a valuable parameter for selecting a vulnerable area and evaluating the overall risk of slope failure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2000.11a
• /
• pp.193-200
• /
• 2000

Numerical analysis of slope stability is presented using slice method, static seismic analysis methods, and earthquake response analysis methods. Static seismic force is considered as 0.2g while vertical static seismic force is not considered in analysis. For earthquake response analysis, Hachinohe-wave is applied. Safety factor calculated using slice method for failure surface. Calculating methods are Bishop's method and Janhu's method. Static seismic analysis was applied using Mhor-Coulomb model and earthquake response analysis was applied using non-linear elastic model.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.157-176
• /
• 2017

2-edge box girder bridges have been widely used in civil engineering practice. However, these bridges show weakness in aerodynamic stability. To overcome this weakness, additional attachments, such as fairing and flap, are usually used. These additional attachments can increase the cost and decrease the constructability. Some previous researchers suggested an aerodynamically stabilized 2-edge box girder section, giving a slope to the edge box instead of installing additional attachments. However, their studies are limited to only dynamic stability, even though static aerodynamic coefficients are as important as dynamic stability. In this study, focus was given to the evaluation of static aerodynamic response for a stabilized 2-edge box girder section. For this, the slopes of the edge box were varied from $0^{\circ}$ to $17^{\circ}$ and static coefficients were obtained through a series of wind tunnel tests. The results were then compared with those from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. From the results, it was found that the drag coefficients generally decreased with the increasing box slope angle, except for the specific box slope range. This range of box slope varied depending on the B/H ratio, and this should be avoided for the practical design of such a bridge, since it results in poor static aerodynamic response.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.97-111
• /
• 2015

The kinematical approach of limit analysis is used to estimate the three dimensional stability analysis of rock slopes with nonlinear Hoek-Brown criterion under earthquake forces. The generalized tangential technique is introduced, which makes limit analysis apply to rock slope problem possible. This technique formulates the three dimensional stability problem as a classical nonlinear programming problem. A nonlinear programming algorithm is coded to search for the least upper bound solution. To prove the validity of the present approach, static stability factors are compared with the previous solutions, using a linear failure criterion. Three dimensional seismic and static stability factors are calculated for rock slopes. Numerical results of indicate that the factors increase with the ratio of slope width and height, and are presented for practical use in rock engineering.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.65 no.5
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2023

Due to climate change and aging of reservoirs, damage to embankment slopes is increasing. However, the safety diagnosis of the reservoir slope is mainly conducted by visual observation, and the time and economic cost are formidable to apply soil mechanical tests and slope stability analysis. Accordingly, this study presented a predicting method for the compaction and strength characteristics of the reservoir embankment soil using a portable static cone penetration test. The predicted items consisted of dry density, cohesion, and internal friction angle, which are the main factors of slope stability analysis. Portable static cone penetration tests were performed at 19 reservoir sites, and prediction equations were constructed from the correlation between penetration resistance data and test results of soil samples. The predicted dry density and strength parameters showed a correlation with test results between R² 0.40 and 0.93, and it was found to replace the test results well when used as input data for slope stability analysis (R² 0.8134 or more, RMSE 0.0320 or less). In addition, the prediction equations for the minimum safety factor of the slope were presented using the penetration resistance and gradient. As a result of comparing the predicted safety factor with the analysis results, R² 0.5125, RMSE 0.0382 in coarse-grained soil, R² 0.4182 and RMSE 0.0628 in fine-grained soil. The results of this study can be used as a way to improve the existing slope safety diagnosis method, and are expected to be used to predict the characteristics of various soils and inspect slopes.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.439-452
• /
• 2022

A forecast of slope behavior during catastrophic events, such as earthquakes is crucial to recognize the risk of slope failure. This paper endeavors to eliminate the significant supposition of predefined slip surfaces in the slope stability analysis, which questions the relevance of simple conventional methods under seismic conditions. To overcome such limitations, a methodology dependent on the slip line hypothesis, which permits an automatic generation of slip surfaces, is embraced to trace the extreme slope face under static and seismic conditions. The effect of earthquakes is considered using the pseudo-static approach. The current outcomes developed from a parametric study endorse a non-linear slope surface as the extreme profile, which is in accordance with the geomorphological aspect of slopes. The proposed methodology is compared with the finite element limit analysis to ensure credibility. Through the design charts obtained from the current investigation, the stability of slopes can be assessed under seismic conditions. It can be observed that the extreme slope profile demands a flat configuration to endure the condition of the limiting equilibrium at a higher level of seismicity. However, a concurrent enhancement in the shear strength of the slope medium suppresses this tendency by offering greater resistance to the seismic inertial forces induced in the medium. Unlike the traditional linear slopes, the extreme slope profiles mostly exhibit a steeper layout over a significant part of the slope height, thus ensuring a more optimized solution to the slope stability problem. Further, the susceptibility of the Longnan slope failure in the Huining-Wudu seismic belt is predicted using the current plasticity approach, which is found to be in close agreement with a case study reported in the literature. Finally, the concept of equivalent single or multi-tiered planar slopes is explored through an example problem, which exhibits the appropriateness of the proposed non-linear slope geometry under actual field conditions.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.175-184
• /
• 2020

In Korea, there are many regulations and cases for horizontal seismic coefficient to pseudo-static analysis of slope, but there are insufficient regulations and cases for vertical seismic coefficient. Therefore, geological investigation and laboratory tests were conducted to analyze the effect of the vertical seismic coefficient on slope stability, and pseudo-static analyses based on infinite slope stability analysis were performed by using those results. As a result, if the earthquake magnitude is less than M 5.0, the effect of the vertical seismic coefficient is not significant, and if the earthquake magnitude is more than M 6.0, the vertical seismic coefficient largely increases the unstable areas of Fs ≤ 1.1. These tendency is more distinct in rainfall condition than without rainfall condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2009.03a
• /
• pp.620-625
• /
• 2009

The seismic slope stability is most often evaluated by the pseudo-static limit analysis, in which the earthquake loading is simplified as static inertial loads acting in horizontal and/or vertical directions. The transient loading is represented by constant acceleration via the pseudostatic coefficients. The result of a pseudostatic analysis is governed by the selection of the value of the pseudostatic coefficient. However, selection of the value is very difficult and often done in an ad hoc manner without a sound physical reasoning. In addition, the maximum acceleration is commonly estimated from the design guideline, which cannot accurately estimate the dynamic response of a slope. There is a need to perform a 2D dynamic analysis to properly define the dynamic response characteristics. This paper develops the modified one-dimensional seismic site response analysis. The modified site response analysis adjusts the density of the layers to simulate the change in mass and weight of the layers of the slope with depth. Multiple analyses are performed at various locations within the slope to estimate the change in seismic response of the slope. The calculated peak acceleration profiles with depth from the developed procedure are compared to those by the two-dimensional analyses. Comparisons show that the two methods result in remarkable match.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.287-297
• /
• 2020

This paper investigates the stability of a three-dimensional (3D) wedge under the pseudo-static action of an earthquake based on the nonlinear Barton-Bandis (B-B) failure criterion. The influences of the mechanical parameters of the discontinuity surface, the geometric parameters of the wedge and the pseudo-static parameters of the earthquake on the stability of the wedge are analyzed, as well as the sensitivity of these parameters. Moreover, a stereographic projection is used to evaluate the influence of pseudo-static direction on instability mode. The parametric analyses show that the stability coefficient and the instability mode of the wedge depend on the mechanical parameter of the rock mass, the geometric form of the wedge and the pseudo-static state of the earthquake. The friction angle of the rock φ_b, the roughness coefficient of the structure surface JRC and the two angles related to strikes of the joints θ₁ and θ₂ are sensitive to stability. Furthermore, the sensitivity of wedge height h, the compressive strength of the rock at the fracture surface JCS and the slope angle α to the stability are insignificant.