Stability analysis of slopes under groundwater seepage and application of charts for optimization of drainage design

Due to the seepage of groundwater, the resisting force of slopes decreases and the sliding force increases, resulting in significantly reduced slope stability. The instability of most natural slopes is closely related to the influence of groundwater. Therefore, it is important to study slope stability under groundwater seepage conditions. Thus, using a simplified seepage model of groundwater combined with the analysis of stresses on the slip surface, the limit equilibrium (LE) analytical solutions for two- and three-dimensional slope stability under groundwater seepage are deduced in this work. Meanwhile, the general nonlinear Mohr-Coulomb (M-C) strength criterion is adopted to describe the shear failure of a slope. By comparing the results with the traditional LE methods on slope examples, the feasibility of the proposed method is verified. In contrast to traditional LE methods, the proposed method is more suitable for analyzing slope stability under complex conditions. In addition, to facilitate the optimization of drainage design in the slope, stability charts are drawn for slopes with different groundwater tables. Furthermore, the study concluded that: (1) when the hydraulic gradient of groundwater is small, the effect on slope stability is also small for a change in the groundwater table; and (2) compared with a slope without a groundwater table, a slope with a groundwater table has a larger failure range under groundwater seepage.