Consideration of the stress-strain state in calculations of slope stability of earth dams

Conclusions

• 1. The stability of slopes of earth structures can be estimated directly from solving the appropriate boundary-value problem with modeling of the actual relations between stresses and strains.

• 2. Even in the simplest cases (a homogeneous “dry” dam under the effect of its own weight and a horizontal seismic load) the proposed method permits refining the surface of sliding and the value of the stability factor obtained by elementary methods.

• 3. Despite the fact that the VNIIG-Terzaghi method does not take into account the stress-strain state, it provides a comparatively high accuracy. In the investigated example the error in determining the stability factor is 10%. Apparently, in more complex cases for structures being constructed from various types of soils, with consideration of the seepage forces (especially unsteady), with consideration of consolidation in the watertight elements of the dams, and with consideration of their staged construction the divergences can be much greater.