Reliability analysis using Limit equilibrium and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics-based method for homogeneous soil...

Area of Science:

• Geotechnical Engineering
• Computational Mechanics
• Risk Assessment

Background:

• Accurate prediction of sliding mass volume is essential for landslide risk assessment.
• Traditional methods may underestimate risk, especially with uncertain soil properties.
• Efficient computational methods are needed for practical slope stability analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an efficient combined method for predicting sliding mass volume in homogeneous slopes.
• To integrate Limit Equilibrium Method (LEM) and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) for improved accuracy.
• To assess the impact of soil property uncertainty on landslide risk.

Main Methods:

• Equating failure surfaces from LEM (minimum factor of safety) and SPH to find threshold displacement.
• Utilizing SPH to identify sliding mass volume based on threshold displacement.
• Developing a regression model from SPH simulations for homogeneous soil slopes.

Main Results:

• The proposed LEM-SPH method provides a more accurate prediction of sliding mass volume.
• Using minimum factor of safety in LEM can lead to underestimation of sliding mass volume and unconservative risk values.
• Increased uncertainty in soil properties significantly affects the mean volume and landslide risk.

Conclusions:

• The combined LEM-SPH method is effective for predicting sliding mass volume, especially under uncertainty.
• The method is particularly valuable for slopes with significant variations in soil properties.
• Accurate landslide risk assessment necessitates considering the uncertainty of soil properties.