ABSTRACT
The LEM, which is based on the force and moment equilibrium, is a popular method among engineers. Besides the LEM (introduced previously in Chapter 2), the use of the finite difference/finite element methods has also attracted engineers in recent times (introduced in Section 2.9). This approach is currently adopted in several well-known commercial geotechnical finite element programs. The SRM by finite element analysis was used for slope stability analysis as early as 1975 by Zienkiewicz et al. Later, the SRM was applied by Naylor (1982), Donald and Giam (1988), Matsui and San (1992), Ugai and Leshchinsky (1995), Song (1997), Dawson et al. (1999), Griffiths and Lane (1999), Zheng et al. (2005) and others. In the SRM, the domain under consideration is discretized and the equivalent body forces are applied to the system. The yield criterion adopted is usually the MohrCoulomb criterion, but the use of other yield criteria is also possible. Different researchers and commercial programs have adopted different definitions to assess the factor of safety (FOS). The most popular definitions for the FOS include the following: (1) a sudden change in the displacement of the system; (2) failure to converge after a pre-determined number of iterations have been performed; (3) a continuous yield zone is formed.
