ABSTRACT
The reluctance of geotechnical practitioners to apply reliability methods to slope stability analysis is attributed, among other factors, to the sophistication of advanced probabilistic assessment/modelling methods, limited published studies/worked examples illustrating the implementation, and lack of user-friendly tools. From an implementation point of view, the less information required from the engineers regarding the probabilistic assessment or reliability computational algorithm, the smaller hurdle the engineer will face in properly using the algorithm, and the more likely it will be implemented. Therefore, it is desirable to decouple the process of deterministic slope stability analysis and reliability analysis so that the work of reliability analysis can proceed as an extension of deterministic analysis in a non-intrusive manner. It is also desirable to implement the reliability analysis algorithm in a software platform with whom the engineers are familiar. From this perspective, the ubiquitous Microsoft EXCEL spreadsheet is particular of interest.
