Influence of Anisotropy and Nonhomogeneity on Stability Analysis of Fissured Slopes Subjected to Seismic Action

Abstract

Based on the upper bound theorem of limit analysis, this paper presents a procedure for assessment of the influence of the soil anisotropy and nonhomogeneity on the stability of fissured slopes subjected to seismic action. By means of a mathematical optimization procedure written in Matlab software codes, the stability factorsNSandλcφare derived with respect to the best upper bound solutions. A series of stability charts are obtained in this paper, and then the critical locations of cracks are determined for cracks of known depth. The results demonstrate a significant influence of the soil anisotropy and nonhomogeneity on the stability of the fissured slopes and the location distribution of the cracks. In addition, the procedures for getting the factor of safety are put forward. It is shown that a decrease in the nonhomogeneity coefficientn0and an increase in the anisotropy coefficientkcould lead to the fissured slopes becoming unsafe. Finally, this article also illustrates the variation in the safety factor of fissured slopes under the impact of three factors (Kh,H1/H, andλ).