On the design of bank revetments at inland waterways subjected to ship-induced water level drawdown: A probabilistic infinite slope analysis

To protect embankments along German inland waterways against local slope sliding failure caused by ship-induced water level drawdown, they are mainly secured by bank revetments. Often, large embankment sections are designed on the basis of a limited number of field and laboratory tests. Thus, uncertainties arise with regard to the mechanical and...

On the Stability of Rubble Mound Structures under Oblique Wave Attack

Slope stability formulae for rubble mound structures are usually developed for head-on conditions. Often, the effects of oblique waves are neglected, mainly because it is assumed that for oblique wave attack, the reduction in damage compared to perpendicular wave attack is insignificant. When the incident waves are oblique, the required...

Reliability updating for slope stability: Improving dike safety assessments using performance information

Dikes are crucial for the protection against floods. One of the ways in which dikes can fail is by the instability of the inner slope. Credible probabilities of failure for slope stability are essential for the safety assessment of existing dikes and the design of dike reinforcements. This dissertation focuses on improving failure probability...

Effect of uncertainties in geometry, inter-layer boundary and shear strength properties on the probabilistic stability of a 3D embankment slope

This paper investigates the influence of three forms of uncertainty on the probabilistic stability of an idealised 3D embankment slope. These are: 1D spatial variability in the external geometry of the slope along its length, 2D spatial variability in the depth of the boundary between the embankment material and the foundation layer, and 3D...

Value of information of combinations of proof loading and pore pressure monitoring for flood defences

Spatial variability and limited measurements often result in low reliability estimates of geotechnical failure modes of dikes (i.e., earthen flood defences). Required dike reinforcements are usually not executed within a few years after inception, which enables efforts to improve reliability estimates by reducing uncertainty. Often decision...

A Bayesian hindcasting method of levee failures applied to the Breitenhagen slope failure

Hindcasting of past levee failures enhances insights in the performance and vulnerability of levees. The scarcity of field evidence makes identifying the cause(s) of failure difficult. Under these circumstances, multiple scenarios and model choices are possible to characterise and to model the failure. This paper shows how probabilistic...

Modified Semi-Analytical Method for 3D Slope Reliability

An improved method for the reliability analysis of 3D slopes has been proposed based on the semi-analytical method of Vanmarcke (1977). Comparing the predicted responses of an idealised 3D slope obtained by the more general, albeit computationally intensive, random finite element method (RFEM), and the original semi-analytical method showed that...

Reduction of uncertainty in stability calculations for slopes under seepage

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Reliability of long heterogeneous slopes in 3d: Model performance and conditional simulation

Highway embankments, river dykes and sea dykes usually have a uniform cross-section and extend for a long distance in the third dimension. These long soil structures are generally characterised by spatially varying soil properties, i.e. soil heterogeneity. Slope stability failures of these structures may have significant economic and societal...

Reduction of slope stability uncertainty based on hydraulic measurement via inverse analysis

The determination of slope stability for existing slopes is challenging, partly due to the spatial variability of soils. Reliability-based design can incorporate uncertainties and yield probabilities of slope failure. Field measurements can be utilised to constrain probabilistic analyses, thereby reducing uncertainties and generally reducing...

Interactive Evaluation of the Reliability of Engineered Slopes Utilising Multi-source Monitoring Information

Important engineered slopes are often heavily instrumented and their performance routinely monitored through these instruments. The evaluation of the safety of the slopes based on the monitored information is however a challenge. A systematic method is presented in this paper for evaluating the slope safety by combining multi-source monitoring...

Stability Analysis of Unsaturated Soil Slope Considering the Variability of Soil-water Characteristic Curve

Soil slopes are generally unsaturated in which the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) plays an important role in its hydro-mechanical response. The commonly used Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion in saturated soil mechanics could be extended to take SWCC into account which is then able to determine the shear strength of unsaturated soil. Like...

Effect of Laboratory Repeatability of Direct Shear Test on Slope Stability

The present work quantified the laboratory geotechnical variability by repeatability direct shear test (DS) on alluvial fine-grained soils. The effect of laboratory variability of geotechnical parameters (cohesion c' and friction angle ϕ′) on slope stability was investigated. A mixture of compacted fine sand (40%) and clayey silt (60%) taken...

Probabilistic Slope Stability Analysis using RFEM with Non-Stationary Random Fields

Using recently obtained deterministic results as a benchmark, probabilistic slope stability analyses have been performed on an undrained slope using the random finite element method (RFEM). Non-stationary random fields have been generated with linearly increasing mean undrained strength and a constant coefficient of variation. The influence of...

Slope Stability Assessment Based on Limit Analysis

Most of the research findings in evaluating slope stability using limit analysis are chart-based. No such stability chart is available to cover a wide range of material strength, slope geometries and external disturbance. Practitioners find it difficult to use the charts for a specific slope project. Compared with a large number of existing...

Reliability analysis of a hydraulic fill with respect to liquefaction and breaching

A recently reclaimed site in the Port of Rotterdam will serve as location and foundation of an LNG terminal. LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) is recognized as hazardous material and underlies strict safety requirements. As part of the safety assessment of the entire installation, a specific analysis had to be carried out concerning the geotechnical...

Assessment of rock mass decay in artificial slopes, Beoordeling van de degradatie van gesteentemassa's in kunstmatige hellingen

This research investigates the decay of rock masses underlying slopes, and seeks to quantify the relations of such decay with time and geotechnical parameters of the slope and rock mass. Decay can greatly affect the geotechnical properties of rocks within engineering timescales, and may induce a rapid change in mass strength, from initial rock...

Numerical modelling of slope formation with sand mining