Influence of Surface Cracks on the Stability of Cracked Soil Slope

Abstract

The slope stability is a major concern to geotechnical engineers. Traditional methods of slope stability analysis have potentially ignored the influence of surface cracks. It is also known that seasonal rainfall and seepage through crack are closely related with slope failure. First, surface cracks provide special flow channels which increase the soil permeability and decrease the soil strength. Second, water-filled cracks apply an additional active force on the slope. Finally, cracks can create a part of the critical failure surface that has no shear strength. The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of existing cracks on the stability of a cracked soil slope in different state. The effects of crack depth, slope angle and water-filled cracks on the stability of the cracked slope are explored. The analysis was conducted using the computer modelling programs Optum G2 to analysis of slope factor of safety. The results show that with increasing of slope angle the factor of safety decreases and this problem is significant in the slope with water filled cracks. Also, Factor of safety for all of slope angles in Dry and water filled cracks states with increasing the crack depth, decrease significantly.