Analysis of Delayed Failure in Sloping Excavations

Abstract

The paper describes a finite element technique that takes account of transient effects through a Biot analysis, enabling coupling of pore pressure variations to a nonlinear soil stress‐strain law. The algorithm can retrieve both drained and undrained solutions as special cases and has been verified against some existing solutions for time‐dependent failure of soil masses. The technique is then applied to the transient stability of excavated soil slopes. Long‐term instability is modeled by allowing the pore suctions, initially generated by the excavation process, to dissipate. For the slope under analysis, the coefficient