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Three-dimensional stability of landslides based on local safety factor

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Abstract

Unlike the limit equilibrium method (LEM), with which only the global safety factor of the landslide can be calculated, a local safety factor (LSF) method is proposed to evaluate the stability of different sections of a landslide in this paper. Based on three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulation results, the local safety factor is defined as the ratio of the shear strength of the soil at an element on the slip zone to the shear stress parallel to the sliding direction at that element. The global safety factor of the landslide is defined as the weighted average of all local safety factors based on the area of the slip surface. Some example analyses show that the results computed by the LSF method agree well with those calculated by the General Limit Equilibrium (GLE) method in two-dimensional (2D) models and the distribution of the LSF in the 3D slip zone is consistent with that indicated by the observed deformation pattern of an actual landslide in China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Tao Yang, Bing Yang & Yan-xin Yang

  2. MOE Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Tao Yang & Bing Yang

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA, 91768, USA

    Man-chu Ronald Yeung

  4. Transportation Research Institute of Chongqing, Chongqing, 400072, China

    Yong-jiang Liu

Authors
  1. Tao Yang
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  2. Man-chu Ronald Yeung
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  3. Bing Yang
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  4. Yong-jiang Liu
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  5. Yan-xin Yang
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Correspondence to Bing Yang.

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http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5072-7089

http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1011-0409

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4098-1419

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Yang, T., Yeung, Mc.R., Yang, B. et al. Three-dimensional stability of landslides based on local safety factor. J. Mt. Sci. 13, 1515–1526 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-016-3918-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-016-3918-2

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