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Existence of discontinuities causes higher deformability and lower strength in rock masses. Thus joints can change the rock mass behaviour due to the applied loads. For this reason properties and orientation of the joint sets have a great effect on the stability of rock slopes. In this paper, after introducing some numerical methods for evaluating the factor of safety for the stability of slopes, stability of jointed rock slopes in the plane strain condition is investigated with the strength reduction technique this method is modified and applied in the multilaminate framework. First of all, stability of one homogeneous rock slope is investigated and compared with the limit equilibrium method. Then stability of a layered rock slope is analyzed with some modifications in the strength reduction technique. Effects of orientation, tensile strength and dilation of layered joint sets on the factor of safety and location of the sliding block are explained.

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Although some 3D slope stability algorithms have been proposed in recent three decades, still role of pore pressures in three dimensional slope stability analyses and considering the effects of pore water pressure in 3D slope stability studies needs to be investigated. In this paper, a limit analysis formulation for investigation of role of the pore water pressure in three dimensional slope stability problems is presented. A rigid-block translational collapse mechanism is used, with energy dissipation taking place along planar velocity discontinuities. Results are compared with those obtained by others. It was found that water pressure causes the three-dimensional effects to be more significant, especially in gentle slopes. This may be related to the larger volume of the failure mass in gentle slopes resulting in more end effects. Dimensionless stability factors for three dimensional slope stability analyses are presented - including the 3D effect of the pore water pressure – for different values of the slope angle in cohesive and noncohesive soils.

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Presented is a method of three-dimensional stability analysis of convex slopes in plan view based on the Lower-bound theorem of
the limit analysis approach. The method’s aim is to determine the factor of safety of such slopes using numerical linear finite
element and lower bound limit analysis method to produce some stability charts for three dimensional (3D) homogeneous convex
slopes. Although the conventional two and three dimension limit equilibrium method (LEM) is used more often in practice for
evaluating slope stability, the accuracy of the method is often questioned due to the underlying assumptions that it makes. The
rigorous limit analysis results in this paper together with results of other researchers were found to bracket the slope stability
number to within ±10% or better and therefore can be used to benchmark for solutions from other methods. It was found that using
a two dimensional (2D) analysis to analyze a 3D problem will leads to a significant difference in the factors of safety depending
on the slope geometries. Numerical 3D results of proposed algorithm are presented in the form of some dimensionless graphs which
can be a convenient tool to be used by practicing engineers to estimate the initial stability for excavated or man-made slopes

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Seismic stability of slopes is typically evaluated by conventional methods under the assumption that the slope is subjected to an

earthquake just for one time. In general, time histories of loadings on slopes are unknown and loads are of variable repeated

nature. Shakedown phenomenon can be considered as a safe state for slopes subjected to variable repeated loadings. In this study,

lower bound dynamic shakedown theorem is employed for the seismic stability of slopes as a comprehensive verification. A

numerical method applied previously to evaluate roads under the traffic loads was modified to make it appropriate for dynamic

shakedown analysis in the present study. The numerical method is based on the combination of finite element and linear

programming methods. Critical PGA is employed as a comparative parameter to compare shakedown and pseudostatic methods.

Results show that, unlike pseudostaic method, shakedown approach is able to consider dynamic properties of load and slope.

Also, it is indicated that contrary to pseudostaic approach, shakedown solutions are different for slopes and embankments.

Shakedown and pseudostaic critical PGA versus dynamic properties of load and slope creates four distinct zones. It is shown that

the forgoing zones can be used as appropriate tools for seismic zonation of slopes based on their short term and long term safety

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The purpose of this study is to compare the results of different probabilistic methods such as the perturbation method, Stochastic Finite Element Method (SFEM) and Monte Carlo Method. These methods were used to study the convergence of direct approach for slope stability analysis and are developed for a linear soil behavior. In this study, two dimensional random fields are used and both the First Order Reliability Method (FORM) and Limited Step Length Iteration Method (LSLIM) have been adopted to evaluate the reliability index. The study found that the perturbation method of the second order is easy to apply using the field’s theory because accuracy is reached even with different coefficients of variation of input variables, while the spectral finite element method yields accurate results only for high levels of solution development.

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Rutting in asphalt concrete is a very common form of distress in asphalt concrete pavement which unfortunately has been incurable to date. One of the prime reasons of rutting is attributed to the behaviour of asphalt binder at elevated temperature. This study has investigated the performance of polypropylene fibres modified asphalt concrete mix against rutting. Two types of asphalt concrete samples were prepared namely control samples (those without polypropylene addition) and modified samples (with polypropylene modification). Marshall Mix Design was used for determining the Optimum Asphalt Content for both sample types. Slab asphalt concrete specimens of dimensions 300 mm length and breadth and 50 mm thickness were prepared for both control and modified samples. These samples were then tested in the Wheel Tracking Device for rutting susceptibility test. The samples were tested at four temperatures i.e. 40°C, 50°C, 55°C and 60°C and under the application of 10 000 load passes of 700N of axle load.. The polypropylene fibres were found to increase the Marshall Stability by almost 25%. The fibres were also determined to be effective against rutting at elevated temperatures while the modification was found to increase the Indirect Tensile strength by stiffening the mix at high temperature however at low temperature, the modification failed to perform effectively.

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In this paper, an approximate method is proposed for determining sway of multistory RC buildings subjected to various types of lateral loads. The calculation of both fundamental period and stability index in RC building requires the sway term at each story level. Using approximate method design engineers can estimate sway terms at each story level. The developed analytical expressions are inserted into fundamental period and stability index equations to replace the sway terms, which yields modified equations for fundamental period and stability index without any sway terms. It is fairly easier to employ these equations developed by eliminating all sway terms. Results obtained from the equations are remarkably close to those generated by the related computer program. Consequently, design engineers can reliably use the simple equations to calculate stability index and fundamental period, which enables the determination of these parameters without referring to the complex sway terms. The capability and accuracy of the proposed equations are demonstrated by a numerical example in which computer program results are compared with the proposed methodology.

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The paper present the results of various experimental and numerical studies on slopes, small scale physical modeling of slope under surcharge load were performed in loose sand environment. Digital images were captured during the incremental loading from side of model simultaneously. The Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and 3D numerical model was applied to investigate the slope under surcharge loading and some of the other important factors that control the performance of piles are investigated. The factors of safety and location of critical failure surfaces of reinforced and unreinforced slopes obtained and compared for various slopes. For homogenous slope, it is found for stabilized slope with piles, the 3D failure surface shape in front of piles is triangle, unlike its conical shape in laterally loaded piles. The paper also studies numerically the effect of soft bound effect, soil properties, pile spacing, pile position and surcharge distance effects on stabilized and none stabilized slopes. The results indicate that the depth of soft soil layer from ground surface and its angles with horizontal direction has importance effect on optimum location of stabilized pile. Studies on pile space effects shows with increasing pile space, arching phenomenon didn’t developed and partial pressure of supported portion transferred to un supported soil portion and the potential failure volume of the slope becomes large.

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This paper presents numerical and theoretical studies on the stability of shallow shield tunnel face found in cohesive-frictional soil. The minimum limit support pressure was determined by superposition method; it was calculated by multiplying soil cohesion, surcharge load, and soil weight by their corresponding coefficients. The varying characteristics of these coefficients with soil friction angle and tunnel cover-to-diameter ratio were obtained by wedge model and numerical simulation. The face stability of shallow shield tunnel with seepage was studied by deformation and seepage coupled numerical simulation; the constitutive model used in the analysis was elastic-perfectly plastic Mohr–Coulomb model. The failure mode of tunnel face was shown related to water level. By considering the effect of seepage on failure mode, the wedge model was modified to calculate the limit support pressure under seepage condition. The water head around the tunnel face was fitted by an exponential function, and then an analytical solution to the limit support pressure under seepage condition was deduced. The variations in the limit support pressure on strength parameters of soil and water lever compare well with the numerical results. The modified wedge model was employed to analyze the tunnel face stability of Qianjiang cross-river shield tunnel. The influence of tide on the limit support pressure was obtained, and the calculated limit support pressure by the modified wedge model is consistent with the numerical result.