NONCIRCULAR SLIDING SURFACES

Abstract

Previous analyses have failed to analytically determine the critical location of general slip surfaces in finite homogeneous earth slopes or to assess the possible importance of shape in computing factors of safety. A numerical procedure is developed to minimize the factor of safety with respect to the shape of the sliding body. The results obtained, except for a few cases, generally confirm the reliability of established procedures using a circular sliding surface. Critical shapes are presented and new data are compared with that obtained from the conventional slip circle analysis. The results are expressed in concise dimensionless form.