2-D soil slope-stability evaluation using vector-sum method

Over the stress state of the sliding body artificially assumed in Limit equilibrium method, the real stress state from any numerical analysis can be imported into a limit equilibrium analysis where the normal stress and shear stress are computed with respect to any selected slip surface. Considering the vector characteristics of force and the strength reduction definition, vector sum method by strength reduction technique was proposed, in which the factor of safety (FOS) can be directly calculated by the force and moment equilibrium. Finally, numerical experiments with six possible conditions are used to verify this proposed method, and the results show that the FOS obtained by the proposed method is in good agreement with the average FOS by limit equilibrium methods.