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Slope Stability Requirement

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ONENGINEER

Geotechnical
Joined
Oct 13, 2011
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284
Location
CA
A single pad footing is going to be designed near the crown of a slope. Slope is of medium dense sand with an angle of 14 degrees from horizontal. Is a global slope stability analysis required as well as the bearing pressure computations?
 
To have asked the question suggests that you might want to do it just to be confident. Required vs Prudent are two different animals. Required usually revolves around a specification or a code. Prudent is - am I bothered?

Slopes in cohesionless materials will be of an infinite slope variety - the worse case is a thin laminar sliding. We usually look at the situation and say - "well, what amount of soil could we tolerate to "move"?" Usually we would pick 10 ft or so and ensure that the sliding plane was at least that thick - this would give you a handle on the sensitivity of the slope. You never said how close your footing was or what it was to support - that might be important too. At 14 deg angle, even if fully saturated, it should be stable but it takes only a few minutes to carry out a quick analysis to ease your mind . . .
 
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