Yield acceleration of soil slopes with nonlinear strength envelope

摘要

This paper presents and discusses the results of a pseudostatic slope stability analysis aimingto address the influence of strength envelope nonlinearity on the computed yield acceleration of a uniformslope in a homogeneous soil. Published linear (Mohr-Coulomb) and nonlinear strength envelopes derivedfrom the same experimental database were employed in the analysis. For the variety of slope geometries ana-lyzed in this study,the nonlinear strength envelope always resulted in a smaller yield acceleration comparedto the traditional Mohr-Coulomb strength envelope. The difference between yield accelerations associated withthe two failure criteria appears to increase with decreasing slope height and increasing slope inclination. Forthe same slope geometry,the critical sliding surface corresponding to the yield acceleration for the nonlin-ear strength envelope is shallower than the critical sliding surface associated with the Mohr-Coulomb strengthenvelope.