In practice, inherent soil variability is not commonly considered in routine slope stability analysis. This is due mainly to the fact that the effect of soil variability is complex and difficult to quantify. Furthermore, the majority of available slope stability analysis computer programs used in practice, which adopt conventional limit equilibrium methods, are unable to consider this aspect explicitly. To predict the stability of a slope more accurately, especially the marginally stable ones, the effect of soil variability needs to be accounted for. In this paper, an advanced probabilistic analysis method called the random finite element method (RFEM), developed by Griffiths and Fenton in the 1990s, is used to investigate the effect of soil variability on the reliability of a c'-φ' soil slope. The results from the probabilistic study demonstrate that soil variability has a significant effect on the reliability of a slope. It is concluded that the deterministic factor of safety (FOS) is not a reliable measure of the true safety of a slope with spatially variable soils.
展开▼
机译：实际上，常规的边坡稳定性分析通常不考虑固有的土壤变化性。这主要是由于土壤变异性的影响复杂且难以量化。此外，实践中使用的大多数可用的边坡稳定性分析计算机程序（采用常规极限平衡方法）无法明确考虑这一方面。为了更准确地预测边坡的稳定性，尤其是边际稳定的边坡，需要考虑土壤变化的影响。在本文中，由格里菲斯和芬顿（Griffiths and Fenton）在1990年代开发的一种先进的概率分析方法称为随机有限元方法（RFEM），用于研究土壤变异性对c'-φ'土壤边坡可靠度的影响。概率研究的结果表明，土壤变异性对边坡的可靠性有重要影响。结论是，确定性安全系数（FOS）并不是对具有空间可变土壤的边坡的真实安全性的可靠度量。
展开▼
