Optimization and variational principles for the shear strength reduction method

Abstract: This paper is focused on the definition, analysis and numerical solution of a new optimization variant (OPT) of the shear strength reduction (SSR) problem with applications to slope stability problems. This new variant is derived on the basis of recent results by Tschuchnigg et al. 2015, where limit analysis and a modified Davis approach were used for approximation of the standard SSR method. The OPT-SSR method computes the factor of safety without performing an elasto-plastic analysis, similarly as in limit analysis. It is shown that this optimization problem is well-defined. Next, the duality between the static and kinematic principles of OPT-SSR is derived. For the numerical solution, a regularization method is introduced and analyzed. This method is combined with the finite element method, mesh adaptivity and a damped Newton method. In-house codes (Matlab) are used for the implementation of this solution concept. Finally, two slope stability problems are considered, one of which follows from analysis of a real slope. The softwares packages Plaxis and Comsol Multiphysics are used for comparison of the results.