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A Monte Carlo technique in safety assessment of slope under seismic condition

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Abstract

In geotechnical engineering, stabilization of slopes is one of the significant issues that needs to be considered especially in seismic situation. Evaluation and precise prediction of factor of safety (FOS) of slopes can be useful for designing/analyzing very important structures such as dams and highways. Hence, in the present study, an attempt has been done to evaluate/predict FOS of many homogenous slopes in different conditions using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique. For achieving this aim, the most important parameters on the FOS were investigated, and finally, slope height (H), slope angle (α), cohesion (C), angle of internal friction (\(\varnothing\)) and peak ground acceleration (PGA) were selected as model inputs to estimate FOS values. In the first step of analysis, a multiple linear regression (MLR) equation was developed and then it was used for evaluation and prediction by MC technique. Generally, MC model simulated FOS of less than 1.18, lower and higher than measured and predicted FOS values, respectively. However, the results of MC simulation for the FOS values of more than 1.33, is higher than those measured and predicted FOS values. As a result, the mean of FOS values simulated by MC was very close to the mean of actual FOS values. Moreover, results of sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the (\(\varnothing\)), among other parameters, is the most effective one on FOS. The obtained results indicated that MC is a reliable approach for evaluating and estimating FOS of slopes with high degree of performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Structure and Material, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

    Amir Mahdiyar & Arham Abdullah

  2. Department of Mining Engineering, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

    Mahdi Hasanipanah

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, 15914, Iran

    Danial Jahed Armaghani

  4. Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

    Behrouz Gordan

  5. Young Researchers and Elite Club, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran

    Hossein Arab

  6. UTM Construction Research Centre, Institute for Smart Infrastructure and Innovative Construction (ISIIC), Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

    Muhd Zaimi Abd Majid

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  1. Amir Mahdiyar
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  2. Mahdi Hasanipanah
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  3. Danial Jahed Armaghani
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  4. Behrouz Gordan
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Correspondence to Danial Jahed Armaghani.

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Mahdiyar, A., Hasanipanah, M., Armaghani, D.J. et al. A Monte Carlo technique in safety assessment of slope under seismic condition. Engineering with Computers 33, 807–817 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-016-0499-1

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