Determination of Residual Strength of Soils for Slope Stability Analysis: State of the Art Review

Abstract

Slope stability is always one of the greatest issues of concern in geotechnical engineering. In slope stability analyses, the residual strength of slip zones is one of the most important parameters for understanding the reactivation mechanisms and for evaluating the stability of slopes. The kinds of soils, the situations of the soils, and the test conditions are the three main aspects that affect the residual strength. Among the test conditions, the selection of the shear testing apparatus, the normal stress, the overconsolidation ratio, the shear rate, and the acceleration are the main critical factors that affect the residual strength of soils. This paper firstly presents a systematic literature review of the factors that influence the residual strength of soils under certain test conditions, which can help obtain the residual strength accurately and easily in a geotechnical research. The paper also summarizes the available indexes, such as the Atterberg limits, for determining the residual strength. Moreover, this paper highlights future research challenges with an aim to clarify the effect of acceleration on the residual strength in a wider range which has not been well researched, but which needs to be explored further.