Investigation of slope stability based on strength-reduction-based numerical manifold method and generalized plastic strain

In regard to geotechnical problems, the numerical manifold method (NMM) has many particular advantages over the finite element method (FEM) in many aspects. In the present paper, a numerical model called SRNMM-GPS method is further proposed for slope stability analysis. In the proposed numerical model, a strength-reduction-based NMM (SRNMM) is firstly adopted to predict slope’s safety factor and generalized plastic strain (GPS) field that corresponds to the slope’s limit equilibrium state. Then, a group of useful points locating within the plastic zone of the slope are determined. With these points, an improved version of least square method is adopted to obtain a rational critical slip surface (CSS), which passes through the point with the maximum value of GPS near the toe of the slope. The proposed SRNMM-GPS method is verified with some typical examples. The proposed method deserves further investigation.