Three-dimensional slope stability analysis using independent cover based numerical manifold and vector method

• Published in: Engineering geology Vol. 225; pp. 83 - 95
• Main Authors: Liu, Gaoyang, Zhuang, Xiaoying, Cui, Zhouquan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 20.07.2017
• Subjects: Critical slip surface; Independent cover; Manifold method; Slope stability; Vector sum method; Independent cover; Slope stability; Vector sum method; Manifold method; Critical slip surface
• ISSN: 0013-7952; 1872-6917
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.02.022

A three-dimensional (3D) slope stability analysis method is presented in this paper based on three-dimensional independent cover based manifold method (ICMM3D) and vector sum method (VSM). ICMM3D is proposed in the framework of independent cover, which avoid the time-consuming and error-prone cover system generation of convention numerical manifold method (NMM). It is very suitable for the continuous/discontinuous deformation analysis in slope engineering. Then, with the stress field obtained by ICMM3D, VSM is employed to calculate the factor of safety, which is effective in computation and clear in physical meaning. In addition, a new strategy of discretization of the slip surface is proposed, which discretizes the slip surface into a set of calculating points in order to avoid errors caused by the special handling in the boundary columns in limit equilibrium method (LEM) and the tedious triangulation of the slip surface in VSM. Finally, genetic algorithm is employed to search for the critical slip surface. Numerical examples demonstrate the efficiency, accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. •Independent cover for efficient model generation for 3D slope stability analysis•Slip surface discretized into points in 3D to avoid the error in LEM•Vector sum method is used to calculate forces without triangulation of slip surface.•Genetic algorithm is employed to search for the critical slip surface.