Loaded Areas on Cohesive Slopes

Abstract

Design charts for performing total stress stability analyses of cohesive slopes subjected to strip loads and square loaded areas are developed. The charts for strip-load provide solutions for different load widths and thus are expected to complement existing solutions. Results show that for square loaded areas, end effects can have an important effect on the magnitude of the critical load causing failure. These effects are especially important when the factor of safety of the slope due to its weight only is close to unity. For many practical situations, three-dimensional effects would increase the plane strain critical load by a factor of 5 to 10.