Strength reduction FEM in stability analysis of soil slopes subjected to transient unsaturated seepage

The instability of soil slopes induced by the fluctuation of water level or rainfall has received much attention in the literature recently and the failure mechanism is closely related to the change of matric suction of unsaturated soils. Such a change is basically induced by unsaturated transient seepage. The traditional approach for estimating the stability of slopes subjected to unsaturated transient seepage is based on the limit equilibrium method (LEM). The limit equilibrium approach is limited by assumptions about analysis method and failure mechanism. In order to overcome those limitations, a finite element method with shear strength reduction technique (SSRFEM) has been successfully applied to the slope stability analysis in absence of seepage. The main objective of this paper is to extend the use of the strength reduction FEM to include the effects of unsaturated transient seepage and some primary numerical results concerning the stability of an earth dam under rapid drawdown are presented. Emphasis has been given to comparison of the safety factors obtained by LEM and SSRFEM. Topics for the further research in this area are also suggested. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.