Location determining method of critical sliding surface of fillings in a karst cave of tunnel

A location determining method is proposed for critical sliding surface in the stability analysis of the filling materials in karst caves. First, a preliminary location of the sliding surface is determined based on simulation results which includes displacement contour and plastic zone. The sliding surface will locate on the bottom contact interface when the friction angle is relative small. However, a weakened contact interface always becomes the critical sliding surface no matter what the friction angle is. Then when the friction angle becomes larger, the critical sliding surface inside fillings can be determined by a parabola, the coefficient of which increases linearly with the friction angle under the same cohesion. Finally, the critical sliding surface approximately remains unchanged with friction angle. The influence of cohesion is similar to that of friction angle. Although affected by shape, size or position of the karst cave, the critical sliding surface mainly depends on both friction angle and cohesion. Thus, this method is always useful in determining the critical sliding surface.