Title: Tabu search for critical non-circular slip surface in slope stability analysis

Authors: Zenghui Huang; Hongbo Zhao

Addresses: Shaqu Coal Mining Corporation, Liulin, Shanxi, 033300, China ' School of Civil Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, No. 2001, Century Avenue, Jiaozuo, Henan, 454003, China

Abstract: Stability analysis of slopes is of utmost importance because its failure may lead to loss of lives and great economic losses. Locating the critical circular slip surface is the key step of slope stability analysis. Location of the critical slip surface of a general soil slope is difficult because the objective function of the factor of safety is non-convex and multiple minima exist in general. In this paper, a new approach which combines tabu search and limited equilibrium method (Spencer method) was proposed and applied to some classic examples. The results show the proposed search approach is stable and highly correlated with the results of independent analyses. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the successful application of tabu search to non-circular critical slip surface search problems.

Keywords: slope stability analysis; critical slip surfaces; Spencer method; tabu search; non-circular slip surfaces.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2016.079388

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2016 Vol.8 No.4, pp.362 - 372

Received: 20 Nov 2013
Accepted: 11 Apr 2014
Published online: 28 Sep 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article