Stability of Slurry Trenches with Inclined Ground Surface

Abstract

A method for assessing stability of slurry trenches within an inclined ground surface is presented using the Coulomb-type force equilibrium method. The influence of ground surface inclination on trench stability and angle of critical failure surface is investigated via parametric studies on an example trench. As expected, the factor of safety decreases considerably with an increase in the ground surface inclination. It is shown that it is unconservative to neglect ground surface inclination while analyzing trench stability. According to the example, no significant error in the minimum factor of safety is introduced by using the failure surface inclination angle of