Chapter 3 - Part I - Slope Stability

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Course Module:
ECG3223
GEOTECHNICS
Chapter 3
Part I
Slope Stability
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Last Updated: March 2020 © LMS SEGi Education Group Dr. Azlinda Saadon
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Chapter 3: Slope Stability introduced students on the:
1. Introduction to the basic slope stability (Soil’s behavior

when the sliding occurs)
2. Awareness of the shearing resistance  in the analysis
related to soil stability.
3. Factor of safety of slope stability.
Last
Last Updated:
Updated: March
8 February
20202020 © LMS SEGi Education Group Dr. Azlinda Saadon
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To introduce the basic concept of slope stability.

2. Students manage to identify the soil condition when
slope started to fail.
3. To understand the causes of slope failure.
4. To calculate the factor of safety of slope stability.
5. To provide and preventive measures in designing slope
stability in order to avoid slope failure.
Last
Last Updated:
Updated: March
8 February
This chapter consist of the following topics:
1. Introduction to slope stability.

2. Types of slope failure
3. Factor of safety
4. Stability of infinite slopes
5. Infinite slope with Steady-State seepage
6. Finite slopes – General
7. Analysis of finite slopes with Plane Failure Surfaces
(Culmann’s Method)
8. Analysis of Finite slope with Circular Failure Surfaces –
General, Mass Procedure and Method of Slices.
9. Ordinary Method of Slices.
Last
Last Updated:
Updated: March
8 February
Slope Stability: INTRODUCTION
 The slope can be natural or man-made.
 Soil with an inclined surface, tends to slide from higher location to a

lower part.
 Sliding will occur if shear stresses > shear strength of the soil.
 However, in practical, the stability analyses of slopes are difficult to

determine.
- Sliding may occur along any of a number of possible surfaces.
- Given soil’s shear strength generally varies throughout time, as soil
moisture and other factors change.
 Therefore, normal in practice to use appropriate safety factors when

making slope stability analyses.
Types of Slope
Types of slope
1. Natural 2. Artificial
Worn or Cut Built or Deposited Built Cut
- Hillside and valley - Screes and Pediment - Embankments and - Cutting and
slopes. slopes. dams. unsupported
excavations.
- Coastal and river - Slide and flow slopes. - Tips and spoil heaps.
cliffs.
2. Types of Slope Failure
a) Falls failure
 This type of failure actually occurs in case of any objects
moving away from the existing discontinuities, for example
such as joints, steeply-inclined.
 The detachment of soil / rock fragments that fall down a
slope.
Figure 1 Fall type landslide.

Figure 1 An Example of Falls Failure at Bukit Lanjan NKVE in 2003
(Source: JKR Slope Department)
b) Slide failure
 This is the downward movement of a soil mass occurring on
a surface of rupture.
 Can be categorized into 2 categories; (a) translational slide,
and (b) rotational trip.
 Translation slide slides failure that involved rock blocks
along bedding planes or a soil layer.
 Rotational trip  it occurs characteristically in homogenous
rock or cohesive soils; the movement taking place along a
curved shear surface in such a way that the slipping mass
slumps down near the top of the slope and bulges up near the
toe (Whitlow, 2004).
Figure 3 Slope failure by sliding
Figure 4 An Example of Slides Failure at Jln Gua Musang-Simpang Pulai 1 in 2007
(Source: JKR Slope Department)
c) Flow failure
 This is the downward movement of a soil mass to a
viscous fluid.
 Flow failure the failure that occur when the slipping mass is
internally disrupted and move spatially or wholly as a fluid.
 It occurs more easily for the unsaturated soil due to the
increasing of pore water pressure and decreasing of shear
strength of soil.(Whitlow, 2004)
Figure 5 Slope failure by ―flowing‖.
Figure 6 Example of Flows Failure at Paya Terubong, Pulau Pinang in 1998
(Source: JKR slope Department)
d) Topple failure
 This is a forward rotation of soil and/or rock mass about an
axis below the center of gravity of mass being displaced.
Figure 7 Slope failure by topple sliding
e) Spread failure
 This is a form of slide by translation.
 It occurs by ―sudden movement of the water-bearing
seams of sands or silts overlain by clays or loaded by
fills‖.
Figure 8 Slope failure by lateral spreading.
Problems with slope instability
Figure 9 Slope failure at Bukit Antarabangsa.
3. Factor of Safety
 The task of the engineer charged with analyzing slope stability
is to determine the factor of safety.
 Generally, the factor of safety is defined as:
Eq. 1
 The shear strength of a soil consist of 2 components,

cohesion and friction, and may be written as:
Eq. 2
 In a similar manner, we can write:
Eq. 3
 where c’d and ϕ’d are, respectively, the cohesion and the angle of friction
that develop along the potential failure surface.
 Substituting Eq. 2 and Eq. 3 into Eq. 1, we get
Eq. 4
 Now we can introduce some other aspects of the factor of safety—that is,
the factor of safety with respect to cohesion, Fc’, and the factor of safety
with respect to friction, Fϕ’.
 They are defined as,
Eq. 5 Eq. 6
 When we compare Eq. 5 through Eq. 6, we can see that when Fc’,becomes
equal to Fϕ’., it gives the factor of safety with respect to strength.
 Or, if,
 Then, we can write,
Eq. 7
 When Fs is equal to 1, the slope is in a state of impending failure.

 Generally, a value of 1.5 for the factor of safety with respect to
strength is acceptable for the design of a stable slope.
4. Stability of infinite slopes
 In considering the problem of slope stability, let us start with the
case of an infinite slope as shown in Figure 10.
 The shear strength of the soil may be given by Eq. 2:
 Assuming that the pore water pressure is zero, we will evaluate

the factor of safety against a possible slope failure along a plane
AB located at a depth H below the ground surface.
 The slope failure can occur by the movement of soil above the
plane AB from right to left.
 Let us consider a slope element abcd that has a unit length
perpendicular to the plane of the section shown.
 The forces, F, that act on the faces ab and cd are equal and
opposite and may be ignored.
Figure 10 Analysis of infinite slope (without seepage)
 The weight of the soil element is,
Eq. 8
 The weight, W can be resolved into 2 components:

1. Force perpendicular to the plane AB = Na = Wcos β = γLH cos
β.
2. Force parallel to the plane AB = Ta = Wsin β = γLH sin β. Note
that this is the force that tends to cause the slip along the plane.
 Thus, the effective normal stress and the shear stress at the
base of the slope element can be given, respectively, as
Eq. 9
Eq. 10 PowerPoint® Slides by

Last Updated: March 2020 Dr. Azlinda Saadon
 The reaction to the weight W is an equal and opposite force R.
 The normal and tangential components of R with respect to the
plane AB are, Eq. 11
 and,
Eq. 12
 For equilibrium, the resistive shear stress that develops at the base of
the element is equal to (Tr)/(Area of base) = γH sin β cos β.
 The resistive shear stress also may be written in the same form as Eq.
3:
 The value of the normal stress is given in Eq. 9. Substitution of Eq. 9

into Eq. 3 yields,
Eq. 13
 Thus,
or,
Eq. 14
 The factor of safety with respect to strength has been defined in Eq.
7 from which we get,
 Substituting the proceeding relationships into Eq. 14, from which we

get,
Eq. 15
 For granular soils, c’= 0, and the factor of safety, Fs, becomes equal
to (tan ϕ’)/(tan β).
 This indicates that in an infinite slope in sand, the value of Fs is

independent of the height H and the slope is stable as long as β < ϕ’.
 If a soil possesses cohesion and friction, the depth of the plane along
which critical equilibrium occurs may be determined by substituting
Fs=1 and H=Hcr into Eq. 15.
 Thus,
Eq. 16
5. Infinite Slope with Steady-state Seepage
 Figure 11 shows an infinite slope.
 It is assumed that there is seepage through the soil and that the
groundwater level coincides with the ground surface.
 The shear strength of the soil is given by,
Eq. 17
 To determine the factor of safety against failure along the plane

AB, consider the slope element abcd. The forces that act on the
vertical faces ab and cd are equal and opposite.
 The total weight of the slope element of unit length is,
Eq. 18
 The components of W in the directions normal and parallel to plane
AB are,
Eq. 19
 and,
Eq. 20
 The reaction to the weight W is equal to R. Thus,
Eq. 21
 and,
Eq. 22
 The normal stress and the shear stress at the base of the
element are, respectively,
Eq. 23 Eq. 24
Figure 11 Analysis of infinite slope (with seepage)
 The resistive shear stress developed at the base of the element can
also be given by,
Eq. 25
 and,
 therefore,
 Substituting the values of Eq. 23 and u into Eq. 25, we get,
Eq. 26
 Now, setting the right-hand sides of Eq. 24 and 26 equal to each
other gives,
Eq. 27
 The factor of safety with respect to strength can be found by

substituting tan ϕ’d = (tan ϕ’)/Fs and c’d = c’/Fs into Eq. 27, or
Eq. 28
Example 1:
For the infinite slope shown in Figure 12 (consider that there is no seepage through the soil),
determine:
a. The factor of safety against sliding along the soil–rock interface.
b. The height, H, that will give a factor of safety (Fs) of 2 against sliding along the soil–rock
interface
Figure 12 Analysis of infinite slope (with seepage)
© LMS SEGi Education Group Dr. Azlinda Saadon
Solution:
Part a) Use Equation 15,
Part b) Use Equation 15,
6. Finite Slope: General
 When the value of Hcr approaches the height of the slope, the slope
generally may be considered finite.
 For simplicity when analyzing the stability of a finite slope in a

homogeneous soil, we need to make an assumption about the
general shape of the surface of potential failure.
 Although considerable evidence suggests that slope failures usually

occur on curved failure surfaces, Culmann (1875) approximated
the surface of potential failure as a plane.
 The factor of safety, Fs, calculated by using Culmann’s

approximation, gives fairly good results for near-vertical slopes
only.
 After extensive investigation of slope failures in the 1920s, a
Swedish geotechnical commission recommended that the actual
surface of sliding may be approximated to be circularly
cylindrical.
 Since that time, most conventional stability analyses of slopes have

been made by assuming that the curve of potential sliding is an
arc of a circle.
 However, in many circumstances (for example, zoned dams and

foundations on weak strata), stability analysis using plane failure of
sliding is more appropriate and yields excellent results.
7. Analysis of finite slopes with Plane Failure
Surfaces (Culmann’s Method)
 Culmann’s analysis is based on the assumption that the failure of
a slope occurs along a plane when the average shearing stress
tending to cause the slip is more than the shear strength of the
soil.
 Also, the most critical plane is the one that has a minimum ratio of
the average shearing stress that tends to cause failure to the shear
strength of soil.
 Figure 13 shows a slope of height H. The slope rises at an angle
β with the horizontal.
 AC is a trial failure plane. If we consider a unit length
perpendicular to the section of the slope, we find that the weight
of the wedge ABC is equal to:
Figure 13 Finite slope analysis – Culmann’s method.
Eq. 29
 The normal and tangential components of W with respect to the

plane AC are follows.
Eq. 30
Eq. 31
 The average effective normal stress and the average shear stress on
the plane AC are, respectively,
Eq. 32
Eq. 33
 The average resistive shearing stress developed along the plane AC
also may be expressed as,
Eq. 34
 Now from Eq. 33 and 34,
Eq. 35
 Or,
Eq. 36
 The expression in Eq. 36 is derived for the trial failure plane AC.
 In an effort to determine the critical failure plane, we must use the
principle of maxima and minima (for a given value of ϕ’d) to find the
angle, θ where the developed cohesion would be maximum.
 Thus, the first derivative of c’d with respect to θ is set equal to
zero, or,
Eq. 37
 Because γ, H, and θ are constants in Eq. 36, we have,
Eq. 38
 Solving Eq. 38 gives the critical value of θ, or
Eq. 39
 Substitution of the value of θ = θcr into Eq. 36 yields,
Eq. 40
 Preceding equation also can be written as,
Eq. 41
 where m is a stability number.

 The maximum height of the slope for which critical equilibrium
occurs can be obtained by substituting cd’ = c’ and ϕ’d = ϕ’ into Eq.
40.
 Thus, the critical height, Hcr,
Eq. 42
Example 2:
A cut is to be made in a soil having γ = 16.5 kN/m3, c’ = 28.75 kN/m2, and ϕ’ =
150.
The side of the cut slope will make an angle of 450 with the horizontal.
What should be the depth of the cut slope (H) that will have a factor of safety
(Fs) of 3?
Solution:
Substituting the preceding values of cd’ and ϕd’ in Eq. 40,
Example 3:
Refer to figure below. For a trial failure surface AC in the slope, given:
H = 5 m, β = 550, θ = 350, and γ =17.5 kN/m3.
The shear strength parameters of the soil are c’ = 25 kN/m2 and ϕ’= 260.
Determine the factor of safety F s for the trial failure surface.
Solution:
From Equation 33, the average shear stress on the plane AC is,
From Equation 34, the maximum average shear stress that can be mobilized on the
plane AC is,
Therefore, the factor of safety,

Chapter 3 - Part I - Slope Stability

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FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

1. Introduction to the basic slope stability (Soil’s behavior

1. To introduce the basic concept of slope stability.

1. Introduction to slope stability.

 Soil with an inclined surface, tends to slide from higher location to a

 However, in practical, the stability analyses of slopes are difficult to

 Therefore, normal in practice to use appropriate safety factors when

Worn or Cut Built or Deposited Built Cut

Figure 1 Fall type landslide.

Figure 1 Fall type landslide.

Figure 1 Fall type landslide.

Figure 7 Slope failure by topple sliding

Figure 8 Slope failure by lateral spreading.

 The shear strength of a soil consist of 2 components,

 Then, we can write,

 When Fs is equal to 1, the slope is in a state of impending failure.

 Assuming that the pore water pressure is zero, we will evaluate

 The weight, W can be resolved into 2 components:

Eq. 10 PowerPoint® Slides by

 The value of the normal stress is given in Eq. 9. Substitution of Eq. 9

 Substituting the proceeding relationships into Eq. 14, from which we

 This indicates that in an infinite slope in sand, the value of Fs is

 To determine the factor of safety against failure along the plane

 The reaction to the weight W is equal to R. Thus,

 Substituting the values of Eq. 23 and u into Eq. 25, we get,

 The factor of safety with respect to strength can be found by

Figure 12 Analysis of infinite slope (with seepage)

Part b) Use Equation 15,

 For simplicity when analyzing the stability of a finite slope in a

 Although considerable evidence suggests that slope failures usually

 The factor of safety, Fs, calculated by using Culmann’s

 Since that time, most conventional stability analyses of slopes have

 However, in many circumstances (for example, zoned dams and

 The normal and tangential components of W with respect to the

 Now from Eq. 33 and 34,

 Because γ, H, and θ are constants in Eq. 36, we have,

 Solving Eq. 38 gives the critical value of θ, or

 Preceding equation also can be written as,

 where m is a stability number.

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