Probabilistic Analysis of Embankment Stability on Soft Soils using Random Fields

Resumo

It is widely recognized that geotechnical properties vary spatially due to mineralogical composition, stress history and deposition processes, even within soil layers that appear to be homogeneous. Recently, there are studies that capture the spatial variability from input variables and random fields to create models. These models can be integrated with finite element methods (FEM) to calculate slope stability. In the present study, the objective was to conduct a probabilistic analysis using random fields applied to the stability of embankments on soft soils. The Local Average Subdivision (LAS) method was employed to generate random fields of undrained shear
strength (Su) which were incorporated into the finite element analysis using Abaqus software. To validate the implementation of random fields, modeling experiments on two literature slopes were developed and compared the obtained results with the original data. The comparison revealed acceptable agreement, indicating the effectiveness of the random field implementation approach.