The Safety Status Evaluation of Rock Mass Element by Nonlinear Mechanics Model

Slope stability analysis is an important content in geotechnical engineering designing. And the safety factor is still the main index to evaluate the safety status of the whole slope, but the stability of each element of rock mass can not be reflected by the whole safety factor. Some scholars introduce the concept of point safety factor (PSF) to evaluate the stability of each element in rock-soil mass. However, the present work about PSF is remaining in the field of linear model, instead of nonlinear model. But in real situation, the nonlinear failure criterions are more adaptable used to describe the characteristic of rock mass, such as nonlinear failure characteristic of rock strength, structural characteristic and the effect of the stress to the strength of rock mass. So in this paper, the PSF based on the Hoek-Brown nonlinear mechanics model is founded, followed by calculation PSF for one rock mass element stability.