THE COLLAPSE OF SLOPES

The paper describes the development of a method of analysing the stability of slopes using the author's clastic analysis with variable arching factor, together with a factor of safety derived from the virtual work equation. When applied to a wide range of examples, including the well documented Lodalen and Selset slides, the method is shown to give results slightly more accurate than the Bishop simplified method. The clastic analysis, however, permits examination of the manner in which slope failure mechanisms develop as flow nets are established. From this it is possible to postulate the nature of the internal stress redistribution that is associated with the initiation of the third order mechanism of sequential failure in strain-softening materials. (Author/TRRL)