Stability of double-step muck slope under different overload conditions

Abstract

The failure of construction solid waste (CSW) landfill slopes caused by overload conditions often results in extensive losses to urban construction. Based on a strength reduction technique and geotechnical plastic limit analysis theory, the upper bound solutions of the overall and local stability of the double-step muck slope of a CSW landfill with overloads acting on the top and step are deduced. An optimisation programme is designed in MATLAB to solve for the safety factor and the potential slip surface. Through the introduced theoretical analysis method and the finite difference shear strength reduction method, the stability and critical slip surface trends of the studied slope are obtained for different overload positions and intensities. Furthermore, the influences of different overload ranges acting on the slope top are investigated. The results show that slope stability commonly decreases linearly with increasing overload intensity. When the overload acts on both the top and step of the slope, the overall stability is mainly affected by the overload on the slope top. Moreover, as the overload intensity increases, overall failure occurs first; then, the local failure of the case slope occurs.

Keywords:

• Construction solid waste (CSW) landfill
• muck slope stability
• limit analysis theory
• strength reduction technique
• critical slip surface
• overload intensity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1501304), the Key Technical Project of Shenzhen Science and Technology Project (JSGG20160331154546471), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41472261), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (CUGCJ1701), the National Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (CUG201610491155) and the Undergraduate Independent Innovation Funding Scheme, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (1810491A23).