ABSTRACT
The factor of safety for slopes (FS) has been traditionally evaluated using two-dimensional limit equilibrium methods (LEM). However the FS of a slope can also be computed with FLAC by reducing the soil shear strength in stages until the slope fails. This method is called the shear strength reduction technique (SSR). Many authors have pointed out several advantages of SSR over the limit equilibrium methods. But usually they checked the effectiveness of SSR on rather small models of simple geometry. In this study, the accuracy of the SSR was investigated through comparisons with limit analysis solutions. FS estimated by SSR was compared with FS obtained from Fellenius, Bishop, Morgenstern-Price and Janbu.
