• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.25-32
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• 2016

The two-dimensional (2D) analysis is widely used in geotechnical engineering for slope stability analysis assuming a plane-strain condition. It is implicitly assumed that the slip surface is infinitely wide, and thus three-dimensional (3D) end effects are negligible because of the infinite width of the slide mass. The majority of work on this subject suggests that the 2D factor of safety is conservative (i.e. lower than the 'true' 3D factor of safety). Recently, the 3D finite element method (FEM) became more attractive due to the progress of computational tools including the computer hardware and software. This paper presents the numerical analyses on rotational mode and translational mode slopes using the 2D and 3D FEM as well as 2D limit equilibrium methods (LEM). The results of the parametric study on the slope stability due to mesh size, dilatency angle, boundary conditions, stress history and model dimensions change are analysed. The analysis showed that the factor of safety in 3D analysis is always higher than that in the 2D analysis and the discrepancy of the slope width in W direction on the factor of safety is ignored if the roller type of W direction conditions is applied.