Strength Reduction Method in the Stability Assessment of Vegetated Slopes

Abstract The thoughtful design and mitigation of ecological slope stabilization measures rely heavily on the reliable assessment of the stability of vegetated slopes. This is a complex problem due to the many aspects of vegetation presence that must be taken into account. The numerical model should be able to consider mechanical root reinforcement and root water uptake, which can lead to soil desaturation. This paper presents the application of the strength reduction method to the Modified Cam-Clay model for unsaturated, root-reinforced soils, which allows for the quantitative estimation of slope stability. The technique is implemented in finite element software and tested using several numerical examples. Firstly, the sensitivity of the factor of safety to changes in root constitutive parameters is investigated. In the second example, the stability of the modelled slope is assessed under rainfall of a certain duration followed by progressively modifying soil strength parameters until failure occurs. Furthermore, slope stability is assessed for various durations of the rainfall period.