Direct Estimation of Yield Acceleration in Slope Stability Analyses

Abstract

In conventional slope stability analyses, the yield acceleration is traditionally estimated by trial and error. This approach becomes unwieldy when hundreds or thousands of iterations are required in rigorous probabilistic analyses. To cut down on the computational effort, we developed direct expressions for the values of the yield acceleration for the most commonly used methods of slope stability analysis. Analyses of example problems indicate that the direct computation of yield acceleration provides a significant improvement in the efficiency over the simple trial and error approach, although the numerical difficulties inherent to the various methods of slope stability analyses are still present.