Application of back analysis for assessing the stability of slopes

2017 ◽  
pp. 193-202
Author(s):  
Shunsuke Sakurai
2019 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 18009
Author(s):  
Yukun Wei ◽  
Anders B. Lundberg ◽  
Fredrik Resare

Field monitoring is frequently carried out during excavations and other geotechnical activities and provides additional information during the execution of a construction project. The interpretation of field monitoring data is often obscured by measurement noise and disturbance, and a systematic approach to assess both the quality and implications of the field monitoring data is very helpful in geotechnical practice. The possibility to infer practical conclusions from the field monitoring data depends on the type of field measurements, especially in monitoring of the stability of slopes. Pore pressure measurements can serve as a direct measurement of utilized soil strength for a slope, while deformation measurements are significantly more ambiguous and complicates the interpretation. The assessment of slope stability through field monitoring of deformations requires inverse or back analysis of the soil properties, followed by a forward analysis of the resulting slope stability. Such an inverse or back analysis is frequently influenced by non-uniqueness of the material properties and the stability of the measurement data. Systematic approaches to inverse or back analysis have been demonstrated in the scientific literature, but the practical use of these methods is not entirely straight-forward. The current paper presents a case study of systematic slope stability assessment through field measurements of deformations with a review of the field monitoring programme, numerical simulations of deformations, and a simplified approach to back analysis of the soil parameters. The excavation of a slope in an urban environment including layers of organic clay covered with highly heterogeneous gravel fill is used as an example of geotechnical back analysis. The aim is to elucidate some of the challenges in geotechnical back analysis while providing some practical solutions for practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Joon-Sang An ◽  
Kyung-Nam Kang ◽  
Ju-Young Choi ◽  
Won-Suh Sung ◽  
Vathna Suy ◽  
...  

The stability of tunnels has mainly been evaluated based on displacement. Because displacement due to the excavation process is significant, back analysis of the structure and ground can be performed easily. Recently, the length of a segment-lined tunnel driven by the mechanized tunneling method is increasing. Because the internal displacement of a segment-lined tunnel is trivial, it is difficult to analyze the stability of segment-lined tunnels using the conventional method. This paper proposes a back analysis method using stress and displacement information for a segment-lined tunnel. A differential evolution algorithm was adopted for tunnel back analysis. Back analysis based on the differential evolution algorithm using stress and displacement was established and performed using the finite difference code, FLAC3D, and built-in FISH language. Detailed flowcharts of back analysis based on DEA using both monitored displacement stresses were also suggested. As a preliminary study, the target variables of the back analysis adopted in this study were the elastic modulus, cohesion, and friction angle of the ground. The back analysis based on the monitored displacement is useful when the displacement is significant due to excavation. However, the conventional displacement-based back analysis is unsuitable for a segment-lined tunnel after construction because of its trivial internal displacement since the average error is greater than 32% and the evolutionary calculation is finalized due to the maximum iteration criteria. The average error obtained from the proposed back analysis algorithm using both stress and displacement ranged within approximately 6–8%. This also confirms that the proposed back analysis algorithm is suitable for a segment-lined tunnel.


2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (9) ◽  
pp. 1522-1532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farshid Vahedifard ◽  
Shahriar Shahrokhabadi ◽  
Dov Leshchinsky

This study presents a methodology to determine the stability and optimal profile for slopes with concave cross section under static and seismic conditions. Concave profiles are observed in some natural slopes suggesting that such geometry is a more stable configuration. In this study, the profile of a concave slope was idealized by a circular arc defined by a single variable, the mid-chord offset (MCO). The proposed concave profile formulation was incorporated into a limit equilibrium–based log spiral slope stability method. Stability charts are presented to show the stability number, MCO, and mode of failure for homogeneous slopes corresponding to the most stable configuration under static and pseudostatic conditions. It is shown that concave profiles can significantly improve the stability of slopes. Under seismic conditions, the impact of concavity is most pronounced. Good agreement was demonstrated upon comparison of the results from the proposed method against those attended from a rigorous upper bound limit analysis. The proposed methodology, along with recent advances in construction technology, can be employed to use concave profiles in trenches, open mine excavations, earth retaining systems, and naturally cemented and stabilized soil slopes. The results presented provide a useful tool for preliminary evaluation for adopting such concave profiles in practice.


Author(s):  
Amin Askarinejad ◽  
Patrick Bischof ◽  
Francesca Casini ◽  
Sarah M. Springman

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pan Chen ◽  
Changfu Wei ◽  
Jie Liu ◽  
Tiantian Ma

A theoretical model is developed for describing the strength property of unsaturated soils. The model is able to predict conveniently the strength changes of unsaturated soils undergoing repeated changes of water content. Suction stress is adopted in the new model in order to get the sound form of effective stress for unsaturated soils. The shear strength of unsaturated soils is dependent on its soil-moisture state based on the results of shear experiments. Hence, the parameters of this model are related tightly to hydraulic properties of unsaturated soils and the strength parameters of saturated soils. The predictive curves by the new model are coincident with experimental data that underwent single drying and drying/wetting cycle paths. Hence, hysteretic effect in the strength analysis is necessary to be considered to predict the change of shear strength of unsaturated soils that underwent drying/wetting cycles. Once the new model is used to predict the change of shear strength, lots of time could be saved due to avoiding heavy and complicated strength tests of unsaturated soils. Especially, the model can be suitable to evaluate the shear strength change of unsaturated soils and the stability of slopes experienced the drying/wetting cycles.


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