• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.399-406
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• 2021

It is a key issue in the tunnel design to evaluate the stability of the excavation face. Two efficient analytical models in the context of the limit equilibrium method (LEM) and the limit analysis method (LAM) are used to carry out the deterministic calculations of the safety factor. The safety factor obtained by these two models agrees well with that provided by the numerical modelling by FLAC 3D, but consuming less time. A simple probabilistic approach based on the Mote-Carlo Simulation technique which can quickly calculate the probability distribution of the safety factor was used to perform the probabilistic analysis on the tunnel face stability. Both the cumulative probabilistic distribution and the probability density function in terms of the safety factor were obtained. The obtained results show the effectiveness of this probabilistic approach in the tunnel design.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.5-15
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• 2014

It is very important to design and construct slopes safely because damage cases are increasing due to slope failure. Recently, Limit Equilibrium Method (LEM) based programs are commonly used for slope designs. Though LEM can give factors of safety through simple calculation, it has a disadvantage that the sliding surface should be assumed in advance. On the other hand, the use of Finite Difference Method (FDM) is increasing since the factor of safety can be easily estimated by using shear strength reduction technique. Therefore the purpose of this study is to present a reasonable slope design methodology by comparing the two commonly used analysis approaches; LEM and FDM. To this end, the reinforcement effects of the two methods were compared in terms of the support pattern of soil nailing reinforced in the section where plane failure is anticipated. As a result, the reinforcement effects by nail angle and nail spacing turned out to be equal. Also it was found that the factor of safety increased in LEM, but not changed in FDM when the nail length increased.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.483-490
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• 2002

This paper presents the results of a comparative study between FEM and LEM on slope stability analysis. For validation, factors of safety were compared between FEM and LEM. The results from the two methods were in good agreement suggesting that the FEM with the shear strength reduction method can be effectively used on slope stability analyses. A series of analysis were then performed using the FEM for various constitutive laws, slope angles, flow rules, and the finite element discretizations. Among the findings, the finite element method in conjunction with the shear strength reduction method can provide reasonable results in terms of factor of safety. Also revealed is that the results of FEM can be significantly affected by the way in which the type of constitutive law and flow rule are selected.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.485-492
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• 2003

In this study, We peformed on the effective evaluation of slope berm construction using slope stability analysis programs. The effective evaluation of slope berm construction was performed by stability of slope and economy of construction. This time, used slope stability analysis programs are Talren97 that use Limit equilibrium method (LEM) and FLAC-SLOPE that use finite difference method (FDM), and carried out using Rocfall program to evaluate slope stability by rockfall occurrence.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.65-74
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• 2003

This paper presents the results of a comparative study between FEM and LEM on slope stability analysis. For validation, factors of safety were compared between FEM and LEM. The results from the two methods were in good agreement. This suggests that the FEM with the shear strength reduction method can be effectively used on slope stability analyses. A series of analyses were then performed using the FEM for various constitutive laws, slope angles, flow rules, and the finite element discretizations. Among the findings, the finite element method in conjunction with the shear strength reduction method can provide reasonable results in terms of safety. Also revealed is that the results of FEM can be significantly affected by the way in which the type of constitutive law and flow nile we selected.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.434-443
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• 2009

Slope stability analysis is an essential part of rock slope design. For highly fractured rock, the limit equilibrium method (LEM) based slope stability analysis with a circular failure surface is often carried out assuming the rock mass behaves more or less as a continuum. This paper examines first, the applicability of the finite-element method (FEM) based shear strength reduction (SSR) technique for highly fractured rock slope, and second the use of Mohr-Coulomb (MC) failure criterion in conjunction with generalized Hoek-Brown (HB) failure criterion. The numerical results on a number of cases are compared in terms of the factor of safety (FS). The results indicated that the FEM-based SSR technique yields almost the same FSs from LEM, and that the MC and HB failure criteria yield almost identical FSs when the strength parameters for MC failure criterion are obtained based on the modified HB failure criterion if and only if value of the Hoek-Brown constant $m_i$ is smaller than 10 and slope angle is smaller than 1:1, otherwise MC failure criteria over-estimate the factor of safety.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.545-560
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• 2014

For slope stability analysis, an alternative to the classical limit equilibrium method (LEM) of slices is the shear strength reduction method (SRM), which can be integrated into finite element analysis or finite difference analysis. Recently, probabilistic analysis of earth slopes has been very attractive because it is capable to take the soil uncertainty into account. However, the SRM is less commonly extended to probabilistic framework compared to a variety of probabilistic LEM analysis of earth slopes. To overcome some limitations that hinder the development of probabilistic SRM stability analysis, a new procedure based on recursive algorithm FORM with sensitivity analysis in the space of original variables is proposed. It can be used to deal with correlated non-normal variables subjected to implicit limit state surface. Using the proposed approach, a probabilistic finite element analysis of the stability of an existing earth dam is carried out in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.27-40
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• 1999

In limit equilibrium methods(LEM), all methods employ the same definition of the safety factor as a ratio of the shear strength of the soil to the shear stress required for equilibrium, employing certain assumptions with regard to equilibrium. In addition, in the conventional finite element method of analysis, the minimum safety factor is obtained assuming certain slip surfaces after the state of stress are found. Although the stress states are obtained from the finite element method(FEM), the slope stability analysis follows the conventional method that assumes a potential slip surface. In this study, a slope stability analysis based on FEM is developed to locate the slip surface by tracking the weakest points in the slope based on the local safety factor considering the magnitude and direction of the shear stresses. It has also been applied to be compared with the slip surfaces predicted by LEM. A computer program has been developed to draw contour lines of the local safety factors automatically. This method is illustrated through a simple hypothetical slope, a natural soil slope, and a dam slope. The developed method matches very well with the conventional LEM methods, with slightly lower global safety factors.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.223-235
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• 2022

Bearing capacity of shallow foundations is often determined for either dry or saturated soils. In some occasions, foundations may be subjected to external loading which is inclined and/or eccentric. In this study, the ultimate bearing capacity of shallow foundations resting on partially saturated coarse-grained cohesionless and fine-grained cohesive soils subjected to a wide range of combined vertical (V) - horizontal (H) - moment (M) loadings is rigorously evaluated using the well-established limit equilibrium method. The unified effective stress approach as well as the suction stress concept is effectively adopted so as to simulate the behaviour of the underlying unsaturated soil medium. In order to obtain the bearing capacity, four equilibrium equations are solved by adopting Coulomb failure mechanism and Bishop effective stress concept and also considering a linear variation of the induced matric suction beneath the foundation. The general failure loci of the shallow foundations resting on unsaturated soils at different hydraulic conditions are presented in V - H - M spaces. The results indicate that the matric suction has a marked influence on the bearing capacity of shallow foundations. In addition, the effect of induced suction on the ultimate bearing capacity of obliquely-loaded foundations is more pronounced than that of the eccentrically-loaded footings.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2015

In the slope stability analysis and design, Limit Equilibrium Method (LEM) and Shear Strength Reduction technique (SSR) are mainly used. Both methods are able to perform two and three dimensional analysis. SSR is considered to be more sensitive and more reasonable than LEM by many researchers. However, in practice LEM is still widely used because of the increase of analysis time and complexity of the model in SSR. In this study, three dimensional analysis of the protruding rock slope is performed by SSR in order to study the effects of protruding length using rock slope FLAC 3D. In this study, as results of analysis variations of the safety factor have been studied according to slope angle, slope height, the soil strength, protruding slope length projected variables. The results show that the factor of safety as more affected by the shapes of the protruding rock slope than the rock strength.