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GALENA Slope Stability

Analysis Methods
Background
.

How GALENA calculates factor of safety

By Lou Hamm

Presented by TIPS Training ... at the speed of technology

GALENA Slope Stability

Contents
Introduction to Analysis Methods.......................................................................3
Slope Stability Analysis Theory ..........................................................................3
What determines slope stability? .....................................................................3
What makes a slope fail?.................................................................................3
What is the factor of safety? ............................................................................4
Bishop Method.......................................................................................................4
Bishop definition of factor of safety: .................................................................5
Spencer-Wright Method ...................................................................................6
Spencers Theta ...............................................................................................7
Side force function ...........................................................................................7
Spencer solution ..............................................................................................7
Solution process...............................................................................................8
Sarma Method........................................................................................................9
Differences between Sarma and other methods ...........................................10
The Sarma model...........................................................................................10
Determination of safety factor ........................................................................11
Situations for using Sarma over other methods.............................................11
Summary Comparison of methods .............................................................12

GALENA Slope Stability

Introduction to Analysis Methods

GALENA offers three analysis methods:

Bishop

Spencer-Wright

Sarma

These are methods of mathematical iteration to resolve the forces acting upon a slope as
accurately as possible. The method you choose is determined by the slope geometry, material
properties, and your knowledge of geology and soil mechanics. Sometimes the mathematical
iterations of one method do not converge or resolve properly, and you must use another
method better suited to the parameters of your slope problem. For those times, the
information in this document may help.

Slope Stability Analysis Theory

What determines slope stability?

Four basic factors determine the stability of a slope:

Weight of the Soil -- density in lb/ft3 x volume (symbol W).

Slope angle (symbol ).

Cohesion of the slope material in lb/ft2 (symbol c). Cohesion is the inherent
ability of the material to hold itself together -- just as beach sand packed
into a pail holds the shape of the pail when the pail is removed.

Angle of Internal Friction (symbol ). Measures the amount of friction

that keeps a block from moving when a shear force is applied.

What makes a slope fail?

With these four elements you can calculate a block's tendency to move or resist movement
along an inclined slope.

GALENA Slope Stability

c = Cohesion
= Angle of internal friction
Friction = Wcos tan

of
Plane

ess
weakn

In this model, forces encourage failure depend on the weight of the block above the plane of
weakness:
Force Causing Failure = Wsin
These forces are opposed by frictional forces that also depend on the weight of the block as
well as its cohesion and its angle of internal friction:
Resisting Strength = cL + Wcos tan

What is the factor of safety?

The stability of a slope is often summarized in one number: the factor of safety for the slope.
The factor of safety is a ratio of the resisting strength to the forces causing failure:
FS =

Resisting Strength
Forces Causing Failure

A factor of safety below 1.0 means that the forces causing failure are greater than the forces
resisting failure. The slope will fail.
The higher the factor of safety, the greater the slopes resistance to collapseand the greater
the margin for error in your calculations.
Analysis methods all calculate a factor of safety for the slope, but they differ in how they
calculate the forces acting upon the slope.
The mathematics of slope failure calculation became more complicated around 1920, when
the Swedish Geotechnical Commission presented their findings that slope failures tend to
occur along a curved surface in soils and unconsolidated material. Slope failures in
consolidated material (bedrock) tend to occur along fractures or bedding planes as a noncircular surface.
Since then, engineers and scientists have developed several methods of mathematical iteration
to more accurately resolve all of the forces acting upon a slope. Some methods are more
suitable than others, depending upon geometry and slope material properties.

Bishop Method
On Tuesday morning, September 21, 1954; Dr. Alan W. Bishop presented his paper on The
Use of the Slip Circle in the Stability Analysis of Slopes.
Dr. Bishops method was developed solely for circular failures. The analysis is performed on
a cross-section with a failure surface by:
1.

Dividing the cross-section into slices.

2.

Resolving forces on each slice to calculate the factor of safety.

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GALENA Slope Stability

3.

Summing all slice results over the entire slope to obtain an overall factor of
safety

Bishop definition of factor of safety:

The Simplified Bishop method defines the factor of safety as the ratio of the available shear
strength of the soil to that required to maintain equilibrium.

s=

1
{c + (n ) tan }
F

Where
s=Shear Strength;
F= Factor of Safety
c = Cohesion
n=Total Normal Stress
=Pore Pressure
=Angle of Internal Friction
The Bishop method applies this formula along a circular failure surface by dividing the area
between the failure circle and the slope into vertical slabs as follows:
O

A
n

n+1

Xn

En

W
Xn+1

B s

where
En, En+1 = Horizontal forces
Xn, Xn+1 = Vertical shear forces
W = Soil Weight
P = Normal Force
s = Shear Force at the base
h = Height of the slice
5

En+1

h
D

GALENA Slope Stability

b = Breadth of the slice
l = Length BC
= Angle between BC and horizontal
x = Horiz. Dist. Between slice & circle center
= Angle of internal friction
c = Cohesion
= Pore Pressure
The resulting equation for the factor of safety is:
F=

1
W
sin

[cl + tan (W cos l )]

Spencer-Wright Method
The Spencer-Wright analysis method is a limiting equilibrium technique which balances
vertical force, horizontal force, and moment equilibrium. This contrasts with the Bishop
method which satisfied only vertical force and moment equilibrium.
The Spencer analysis method can be used for both circular and non-circular failure surfaces.

W
u

Zu
Slice
Zd

where:
Zu = Interslice force on the upslope side
Zd = Interslice force on the downslope side
Mn = Net system moment
= Pore Pressure at the center of the slice base
= Angle of the slice base
= Angle of internal friction
c = Cohesion
F = Factor of Safety
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GALENA Slope Stability

b = Width of the slice
W = Weight of the slice
i = The slice number starting with the toe slice as number 1
The uphill and downhill interslice forces on each slice are calculated with the following
equations:

Zu =

(c F )b sec W sin + tan F (W cos b sec )

cos( u )1 + tan tan ( u )
F

cos( d )1 + tan tan ( d )

F

Zd =
cos( u )1 + tan tan ( u )
F

The net system moment equation is resolved as follows:

Mn = {0.5Zd [sin d (bi + bj ) cos d (bi tan ai + bj tan j )]}

Spencers Theta
Since the values for the angle of interslice force may vary between slices, it is represented as a
function:

tan i = ki tan
Where:
i is the angle of interslice force on the upslope side of the slice.
ki is a coefficient that adjusts i over the last 20% of slices.
is a constant angle known as Spencers theta.

Side force function

In Spencers Theta, the ki coefficient adjusts the interslice forces as they near the head of the
failure surface.
k=1 in all slices except the last 20% where k is linearly reduced to zero.

Spencer solution
The solution is the value of the factor of safety and the value of Spencers Theta for which Zn
and Mn are zero.
Zn is the upslope side interslice force on the last slice
Mn is the resultant moment.
To reach a solution with the Spencer method, the program uses a procedure to minimize the
Interslice Force and Moment equations for like values of Spencers Theta and Factor of
Safety. In other words, the program works by varying the Factor of Safety and Spencers
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GALENA Slope Stability

Theta such that the upslope side interslice force on the last slice AND the resultant moment
approach ZERO.

Solution process
To reach the solution, GALENA uses a procedure to minimize the Zn and Mn equations for like
values of the factor of safety (F) and .
This concept can be demonstrated graphically in the following illustrations. The first shows
the upslope interslice force on the last slice:

The intersection of the solution surface with the zero plane defines values for factor of safety
and Spencers theta that satisfy the force equation for Zn(F, ) = 0.
Similarly, an example of the solutions for the moment equation, Mn, for varying values of
factor of safety and Spencers theta are shown graphically in the next slide:

GALENA Slope Stability

The intersection of the solution surface with the zero-plane defines values of factor of safety
and Spencers theta that satisfy the moment equation for Mn(F, ) = 0.
By merging the two previous illustrations the final solution, that satisfies both the moment
equation and the force equation is shown in the next illustration:

The value of F and that makes both Zn(F, ) = 0 and Mn(F, ) = 0 is the solution, and is the
point where the three surfaces intersect.

Sarma Method
The Sarma method is a different approach to determining the safety factor for a slope. It is
intended only for non-circular failure surfaces. Both the Bishop and Spencer methods use the
ratio of the resisting forces to the driving forces at the failure surface to calculate the safety
factor. Through iterations, a series of failure surfaces are tested and the failure surface with
the minimum ratio is the accepted safety factor for the slope and materials specified.
The Sarma method determines slope stability by applying a horizontal acceleration (as a
fraction of the gravitational constant) to the material above the failure surface and calculating
the safety factor the soil mass has to the applied force. The soil strength parameters are
reduced until a zero horizontal acceleration is required for failure. That is until the factor of
safety has the value of just 1.0.
This method was developed by Sarma as part of research done for the Corps of Engineers to
predict deformation of earthen dams due to seismic loading. Sarma extended the research to
calculating safety factors since he reasoned that as a mass of soil moves from no movement to
failure during a seismic event, the mass must pass through acceleration where the safety factor
is 1.0, that is, the point where the mass is at limiting equilibrium. He called this acceleration
value the critical acceleration and labeled it Kc.
Using the Sarma method, the factor of safety is defined as the factor by which the strength of
the material must be reduced to produce a state of limiting equilibrium. That is, the strength
where the driving forces equal the resisting forces. This factor is derived by a series of trial
and error reductions of the engineering properties to reach a Kc value of 0.0 representing a
safety factor of 1.0.

GALENA Slope Stability

Differences between Sarma and other methods

What are the differences between methods that use slices (Bishop, Spencer, MorgansternPrice, Janbu, etc)?
In Sarma the driving force is the K factor (0.0 1.0) that is needed to place the soil mass into
limiting equilibrium. Whereas, the other methods compute the ratio of the total resisting force
to the total driving force for the soil mass being evaluated.
In Sarma the K factor is determined explicitly by solving the equations for equilibrium for
each of the constraints specified by the user. In the other methods, the safety factor is
determined for each failure configuration by varying the geometry of the failure surface by
changing the left and right ending points and the radius of the failure surface. This requires a
hunting algorithm for the other methods to vary the geometry, compute the safety factor, keep
track of minimum safety factor within the confines of the constraints placed on the search
area.
The Sarma methods allows for non-vertical non-parallel boundaries between slices where the
other methods encourage but do not require vertical slices. The non-vertical slices make the
arithmetic more difficult especially for calculating moments. Since Sarma does not use
moments in the solution, the use of non-vertical slice boundaries is avoided.

The Sarma model

The Sarma model connects the slope and the non-circular failure surface with slices. These
slices need not be vertical and their edges need not be parallel.

where
Ei, Ei+1 = Horizontal forces
Ti = Shear Force at the base
-- Pore Pressure
Zi, Zi+1 = Application pt. of interslice force
b = Breadth of the slice
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GALENA Slope Stability

Xi, Xi+1 = Vertical shear forces
l = Length BC
Wi = Soil Weight
= Angle between element bottom and horizontal
Kc = Critical Acceleration Factor
= Angle of internal friction
Ni = Normal Force
c = Cohesion

Determination of safety factor

Sarma found through analysis that a linear relationship exists between the critical acceleration
and the factor of safety. This relationship was calculated by plotting the safety factor using the
Bishop and Spencer-Wright methods against the calculated acceleration factor calculated
using the Sarma method.
Sarma developed a curve to translate or convert a given critical acceleration factor to a safety
factor. The relationship between the safety factor and critical acceleration was found to be
linear over a wide range of typical values.

Critical Acceleration Versus Static Factor of Safety in Stability Analysis of

Earth Dams and Embankments, Geotechnique, Vol 24,No4, 1974, pp661-665

Situations for using Sarma over other methods

The Sarma method can be used on any slope where the other methods are used.
So, when does Sarma need to be used? Sarmas method has the best applicability on slopes
where thin zones of soils are present and when you need to model fracture zones in a mine-pit
cut such as highwalls. These structures are difficult to model in other methods. More so using
Bishop with the required circular failure mode than with the Spencer method, but still placing
the failure surface directly on the weakest zone is difficult to achieve. Sarma easily models
these zones because moment equations dont enter into the analysis.
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GALENA Slope Stability

Sarma Analysis Example

This example from the GALENA example files (file Pit Slope Design.gmf) shows a situation
where SARMA is well suited. The sheared zone in the highwall of this mining operation
would be difficult to model using another method due to the difficulty of ensuring the failure
surface includes the shear zone during the determination of the safety factor. Using Sarma, the
initial failure surface is placed in the shear zone ensuring inclusion of the shear zone in the
analysis.

Summary Comparison of methods

Method

Failure
surface

Slices

Calculation

Where to use it

Simplified
Bishop

Circular

Vertical

Resolves vertical
force and moment
equilibrium

For a quick analysis of a

simple slope composed
of unconsolidated
materials.

SpencerWright

Circular or
non-circular

Vertical

Resolves vertical
force, horizontal
force, and moment
equilibrium

To verify a Bishop
analysis.

Reduces soil strength

parameters until a
zero horizontal
acceleration is
required for failure.

For structures with thin

zones of soils.

Sarma

Non-circular

Vertical
and nonvertical

12

For non-circular failure

surfaces in simple
structures.

To model fracture zones

in a mine-pit highwall.