Slope stability

Slope stability is a slope’s resistance to downslope movement when resisting forces exceed driving forces. It depends on material strength, slope geometry, water, and external loading.

Factor of safety: The ratio of resisting forces or strengths to driving forces or stresses in an engineering system. Slope analyses use this ratio to express how far resistance exceeds the forces tending to cause failure.
Angle of repose: The steepest angle at which a granular pile remains stable without support. It offers a simple comparison for how grain friction limits the steepness of loose slopes.
Slope stability analysis: The evaluation of whether a slope can resist failure under specified conditions. It applies strength and force calculations to estimate a slope’s safety and likely failure modes.
Landslide: The downslope movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth under gravity. It is the broad hazard category that includes many failures caused by lost slope stability.
Shear strength: The resistance of a material to sliding deformation along an internal surface. It supplies the resistance that must counter shear stresses within a potentially moving slope.
Mohr–Coulomb theory: A failure criterion that relates material shear strength to cohesion and normal stress through friction. It provides a common model for estimating the strength of soil and rock in slope calculations.
Retaining wall: A structure designed to hold back soil or other material at different ground levels. Retaining structures can support slopes and change the forces acting on them.
Translational slide: A landslide in which material moves along a relatively planar failure surface. It illustrates failure governed by resistance along a distinct, shallow or planar interface.
Pore water pressure: The pressure exerted by water within the pores of soil or rock. Rising pressure reduces effective stress and can weaken the material along a failure surface.
Cohesion: The component of shear strength independent of normal stress in the Mohr–Coulomb model. Cohesion can help a slope resist sliding even where frictional resistance is limited.

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