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Slope stability analysis considering the rotated anisotropy in soil properties

Zhen Wang (Research Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China)
Huanling Wang (China and Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Geomechanics and Embankment Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China)
Weiya Xu (Research Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China)
W.C. Xie (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo,Waterloo, Canada)

Engineering Computations

ISSN: 0264-4401

Article publication date: 25 January 2021

Issue publication date: 28 July 2021

304

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the influence of rotated anisotropy on the stability of slope, the random finite element method is used in this study.

Design/methodology/approach

The random field is generated by the discrete cosine transform (DCT) method, which can generate random field with different rotated angles conveniently.

Findings

Two idealized slopes are analyzed; it is observed that the rotated angle significantly affects the slope failure risk. The two examples support the conclusion that when the orientation of the layers is nearly perpendicular to the slip surface, the slope is in a relative stable condition. The results of heterogeneous slope with two clay layers demonstrate that the rotated angle of lower layer mainly controls the failure mechanism of the slope, and the rotated angle of upper layer exhibits a significant influence on the probability of slope failure.

Originality/value

The method for rotated anisotropy random field generation based on the DCT has a simple expression with few parameters and is convenient for implementation and practical application. The proposed method and the results obtained are useful for analyzing the stability of the heterogeneous slopes in engineering projects.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFC1501100) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51939004, 11772116 and 11772118), and the Qinglan project is gratefully acknowledged.

Conflict of interest: The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Citation

Wang, Z., Wang, H., Xu, W. and Xie, W.C. (2021), "Slope stability analysis considering the rotated anisotropy in soil properties", Engineering Computations, Vol. 38 No. 7, pp. 3021-3035. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-05-2020-0248

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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