Steep soil slopes and vertical trenches that are in a state of unsaturated condition remain stable in several scenarios due to the contribution of matric suction. Recent studies show that slopes or trenches generally fail due to the loss of matric suction associated with infiltration prior to reaching fully saturated condition. In other words, the stability analysis of unsaturated slopes or vertical trenches extending the conventional method assuming saturated condition may not provide realistic estimates for all scenarios. In this paper, a practical approach is proposed to estimate the stability of an unsupported vertical trench using the mechanics of unsaturated soils. In addition, the proposed approach is used to analyze the stability of a fully instrumented vertical trench in field for different scenarios successfully.
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