New method and insight for stability analysis of compound slopes.

Local instability of a slope widely exists in practice, especially in compound slopes. Based on the deformation energy principle, a new method without any presumption about the shape of the slip surface is proposed for the stability analysis of compound slopes. First, the expression of the safety factor applicable to an arbitrary slope is derived. Then, the stability analysis process/procedure of the slope is given considering local and global instability. Three typical slope examples are studied to verify the efficiency and accuracy of the present method compared with previous methods. Compared with other methods, the proposed method shows good consistency both in terms of the slip surface and safety factor. To investigate the effects of the elastic modulus, Poisson's ratio, internal friction angle, slope angle, step width and depth coefficient on the slope stability and failure mode, a systematic parameter study is carried out. The proposed method in this paper provides a new efficient assessment for slope stability and a reference for the local reinforcement of compound slopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]