A Second Look at Taylor’s Stability Chart

Abstract

Taylor’s stability chart is the main tool used for engineering analysis of simple homogeneous slope stability problems. It is likely that this situation will continue in the future. One of the main deficiencies of Taylor’s original presentation is that it does not provide a convenient, general tool for establishing the critical slip circle associated with a given stability problem. Critical circles define the extent of the potentially unstable zone, and this information is quite useful in many practical situations. The present work completes Taylor’s classical investigation of stability of homogeneous slopes, and presents the tools necessary in order to establish not only stability numbers (safety factors), but also critical slip circles associated with those numbers. The information defining critical slip circles is presented in a simple chart form which is convenient for practical applications.