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Recent advances in 3D slope stability analysis: a detailed review

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Abstract

Regarding the geotechnical aspects, it is very important to correctly estimate a slope’s safety factor against failure. Slope failures, in general, cost a lot of money, hinder transportation, and can even kill people in the worst cases. To successfully prevent such failures, it is required to find proper understanding of the failure mechanisms such that proper analysis techniques may be chosen to appropriately determine the stability of any soil/rock slope. Slope stability analyses in two dimensions have been very popular among the practicing engineers because of the relative simplicity of the underlying concepts, as well as because it also provides conservative estimates of the FOS against failure. However, in many situations where the slope geometry and the loading conditions do not conform the plane strain idealization, a two-dimensional slope analysis can yield results which are far from accurate. In such situations, the only viable option is to study the slope failure analysis in three dimensions. Stability status of a slope in three dimensions is essential when the failure mass and slope geometry alter laterally, the soil/rock properties are anisotropic and not homogeneous, and the local surcharges are applied to the slope. Based upon finite element analysis, limit analysis, and limit equilibrium, stability status in three dimensions has been determined since the 1970s. Many of them are only applicable in specific circumstances. The present paper focuses on presenting an overall picture of different aspects of slope stability analysis in a comprehensive manner.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Source: Kalatehjari et al. (2014)

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Fig. 4

Source: Huang and Tsai (2000)

Fig. 5

Source: Griffiths and Marquez (2007)

Fig. 6

Source: Griffiths and Marquez (2007)

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Data will be made available on request to the corresponding author.

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  1. Civil Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology Patna, Patna, India

    Sumit Kumar, Shiva Shankar Choudhary & Avijit Burman

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  1. Sumit Kumar
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SK: Formal analysis, writing – original draft; SSC: Writing – review and editing; AB: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology writing.

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Correspondence to Avijit Burman.

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Kumar, S., Choudhary, S.S. & Burman, A. Recent advances in 3D slope stability analysis: a detailed review. Model. Earth Syst. Environ. 9, 1445–1462 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-022-01597-y

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