References 1

[Terzaghi]

Does anyone have a copy of the FHWA publication called, "Advanced Course on Slope Stability?" The FHWA pub. number is SA-94-006 & SA-94-005. NTIS# is PB95-249553A & PB95-225819. If so, is it worth getting a copy?

I am interested in writing my own software for in house use. I want to use it as a little design aid, but also to really learn the "nuts and bolts" of various methods. I have a copy of the Transportation Research Board Special Report - " Landslides : Investigation and Mitigation," and a copy of "Slope Stability and Stabilization" by Abramson (the 1995 edition, I think). Are there any other references out there that would be beneficial to have?

Thanks for your help.

 

[BigH]

Terzaghi:

Such an audacious handle!!!

I was just introduced to this web site so - since you had no replies before, I thought I would put one in now!

Suggest that you obtain a simple slope stability program written by others and use it. However, I was from an era where we had to do these things by hand. If you want to learn things in a nuts and bolts approach, I suggest that you:

1. Pick up Terzaghi and Peck, 1967 and use their "form" for Bishop's Slope Stability analysis. Also, you can try the fancy Nonvelliere analysis for a non-circular slope. I have, but unfortuately in storage and not available here, a sheet for doing Janbu non-circular analyses. You can also try analysis using the wedge approaches as given in NAVDOCs.

These methods - by all means, do by hand. Learn how tedious a problem it really is. Used to take some 1 hour to do by hand (no computer, only a calculator and a primitive one) a single surface. Do 8 or 10 to "home in" on the critical circle - time consuming!! This then leads to my second point.

2. Read some of the really good papers from the 1960s on slope stability analyses. I believe in 1967, one of the months of the ASCE Geotechnical Journal (or at that time Soil Mechanics and Foundations Journal), there was a number of very good papers on this topic. These papers - see others too of the era such as state of the art papers in the ISSMFE Conferences - will help you identify the critical surface to check (or start with). Learn also, that for cohesionless soils, the circles want to be shallow (less vertical pressures, less mobilized frictional resistance) - tending to infinite slope. For clayey foudnation soils, the circles typically want to go deep - at least until a bit firmer soil is reached.

Understanding these will then permit you to have your appreciation of the nuts and bolts - but for heavens sake, use GSlope as an easy tool - or Slope/W for more advanced (if warranted).

Best regards.

 

[Terzaghi]

As far as the handle goes, we can always aspire, can't we?

Thanks for your reply. I understand that the process is tedious by hand, and I do use the programs you mentioned. I just enjoy programming, learn a lot from it, and wanted to make my own program to both learn the process and have another check of all the little black boxes out there. I guess it is reinventing the wheel, but if you didn't invent it in the first place, it is nice to learn how to make one.

I have obtained some additional references that are helpful. Now I am just working on the getting the program up to speed.

Thanks again.