Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-1

Shear Strength Reduction Analysis

In this tutorial, RS2 is used to determine the safety factor of a simple
homogeneous slope using the shear strength reduction (SSR) method.
This tutorial covers the basics of setting up a model for an SSR analysis
in RS2, and interpreting the SSR analysis results.

Topics Covered

 Project Settings

 Shear Strength Reduction

 Boundary Conditions

 Field Stress

 SSR Analysis Results

 Critical SRF

Geometry

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-2

Model7

Start the RS2 Model program.

Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the toolbar or the Analysis menu.
Under the General page, define the units as being “Metric, stress as
kPa”. Do not change the number of stages and do not exit the dialog.

Note: if you have a multi-stage model, the RS2 strength reduction

analysis is only carried out at the final stage of the model. If you want to
do SSR at an intermediate stage of a multi-stage model, you will have to
remove the stages after the stage of interest. You can do this by simply
rolling back the number of stages in the Project Settings dialog.

SSR should be used to determine the factor of safety against failure at a

particular point in time (i.e. at a particular Stage). Thus, we only do SSR
at one stage, not for each stage (of a multi-stage model).

In the Project Settings dialog, select the Strength Reduction page. Turn
on the Determine Strength Reduction Factor checkbox. This enables
the SSR analysis. Leave the various SSR settings at the default values.
Close the Project Settings dialog by pressing the OK button.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-3

Boundaries
This model only requires an External boundary to define the geometry.
Select the Add External option in the Boundaries menu and enter the
coordinates shown in the figure at the beginning of this tutorial.

Mesh
Now generate the finite element mesh. Before we do this, let’s define the
parameters (type of mesh, number of elements, type of element) used in
the meshing process.

1. Select the Mesh Setup option in the Mesh menu.

2. In the Mesh Setup dialog, change the Mesh Type to Uniform, the
Element Type to 6 Noded Triangles and the number of elements
to 1500.

3. Close the Mesh Setup dialog by selecting the OK button.

Based on our experience with numerous SSR models, we suggest using a

uniform mesh with 6 noded triangles for all SSR analyses. The number of
elements depends on the complexity of your model. If it is a simple model,
1500 elements should be adequate. If the model is more complicated, then
a larger number of elements may be necessary (e.g. 3000). You can
always try different mesh densities to make sure you are using enough
elements to capture the correct behavior.

Mesh the slope by selecting the Discretize and Mesh option from the
toolbar or the Mesh menu.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-4

Mesh and default boundary conditions

Boundary Conditions
Now we can set the boundary conditions. The portion of the external
boundary representing the ground surface (0,30 to 50,30 to 80,50 to
130,50) must be free to move in any direction.

1. Select the Free option in the Displacements menu.

2. Use the mouse to select the three line segments defining the
ground surface of the slope.

3. Right-click and select Done Selection.

TIP: you can also right-click on a boundary to define its boundary

conditions.

The slope surface is now free, however, this process has also freed the
vertices at the upper left and upper right corners of the model. Since
these edges should be restrained, we have to make sure that these two
corners are restrained.

Let’s use the right-click shortcut to assign boundary conditions:

1. Right-click the mouse directly on the vertex at (0,30). From the

popup menu select the Restrain X,Y option.

2. Right-click the mouse directly on the vertex at (130,50). From the

popup menu select the Restrain X,Y option.

The displacement boundary conditions are now correctly applied.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-5

Free boundary condition applied to ground surface

In general, the displacement boundary conditions for an SSR analysis of a

slope will be a Free ground surface, and Fixed XY (not rollers) for the
remainder of the external boundary.

TIP: you can also use the Auto Restrain Surface (pins) option as a
shortcut to apply pinned external boundary conditions and a free ground
surface for a slope model.

Field Stress
Now define the in-situ stress field.

1. Select the Field Stress option in the Loading menu.

2. Change the Field Stress Type from Constant to Gravity

(gravitational stress distribution throughout the slope).

3. Check the Use actual ground surface checkbox. By using this

option, the program will automatically determine the ground
surface above every finite-element and define the vertical stress
in the element based on the weight of material above it.

4. Leave the horizontal stress ratios as 1, meaning hydrostatic

initial stresses (i.e. horizontal stress = vertical stress). If you
know the actual horizontal stress ratio when doing your own
slope model, you can use this information. However, the
horizontal stress distribution within a slope is rarely known, so
leaving the default hydrostatic stress field has shown to be a good
assumption.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-6

Material Properties
Define the material properties of the soil that comprises the slope.

Select Define Materials from the toolbar or the Properties menu.

Type Till for the name. Make sure the Initial Element Loading is set to
Field Stress & Body Force (both in-situ stress and material self weight
are applied). Enter 19 kN/m3 for the Unit Weight. For Strength
Parameters, make sure the Failure Criterion is set to Mohr-Coulomb. Set
the Material Type to Plastic, meaning the material can yield/fail. Set the
peak and residual Tensile Strength to 5 kPa. Set the peak and residual
Cohesion to 5 kPa. Set the peak and residual Friction Angle to 30°. Leave
the dilation angle at 0° (no volume increase when sheared, non-associated
flow rule).

For Elastic Properties, select the Stiffness tab, and enter 50000 kPa for
the Young’s Modulus and 0.4 for the Poisson ratio.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-7

Select OK to save the properties and close the dialog.

You have completed the definition of the model. Save the model using the
Save option in the File menu.

Compute

Run the model using the Compute option in the Analysis menu. The
analysis should take under a few minutes to run.

Once the model has finished computing (Compute dialog closes), select
the Interpret option in the Analysis menu to view the results.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-8

Interpret

After you select the Interpret option, the Interpret program starts and
reads the results of the analysis. You should see the following screen with
the critical strength reduction factor (SRF) of 1.15 displayed at the top of
the window.

NOTE: if this same model is computed in Slide the limit equilibrium

safety factor is 1.14 compared to a critical SRF of 1.15 in RS2.

Note the different values of SRF (strength reduction factor) in the tabs
along the bottom of the screen. The tab that is selected by default is the
critical SRF. By default the maximum shear strain dataset is selected
and contoured. Maximum shear strain will give you a good indication of
where slip is occurring, especially if you change the view to higher SRF
values.

By cycling through the various SRF tabs, you get a good indication of the
progression of failure through your slope as the shear strength is reduced.

TIP: you can also change the viewing stage by selecting the Page Up /
Page Down keys, or by placing the mouse cursor over the stage tabs and
rotating the mouse wheel.

Change the SRF to 1.5 by clicking on the SRF: 1.5 tab. Note the well
formed shear band. The view should look like the following image.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-9

Now switch to SRF: 1. Another useful feature is the ability to animate the
progression of failure. Select Display Options in the View menu. Choose
the Stress tab. Turn on the Deform Contours and Deform Boundaries
options. Select Scale Factor and enter Scale Factor = 1. Select Done to
save and exit the dialog. Now choose the Animate Tabs option in the Data
menu.

Press the Escape key to stop the animation.

NOTE: the timing of the Animation can be specified in the Stage Settings
dialog in the Data menu.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-10

Turn off deformed contours and boundaries and select the critical SRF
tab (SRF: 1.15). Another dataset of interest is Total Displacement. Use
the combobox in the toolbar to select the Total Displacement dataset. The
displacement contours clearly highlight the zone of failure.

Another important feature when doing an SSR analysis is the ability to

plot maximum deformation versus SRF. As the SRF is increased, the
strength properties are decreased. As the strength decreases the
maximum displacement increases. At some point, the slope will fail, and
deformations will increase rapidly and the finite-element analysis will
not converge. It is this point of non-convergence that defines the critical
SRF. To view this plot, select the Graph Shear Strength Reduction
option in the Graph menu. The following plot is generated. Notice the
inflection in the displacements and the point where the solution does not
converge.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-11

Close the graph.

You may have noticed that the stress analysis results of Stage 1 are not
available to look at. Only the data for the different SRF values are
available. It is possible to view the results from the stage or stages prior
to the SSR analysis. To view the results from these stages:

1. Select the Stage Settings option in the Data menu.

2. Move the Reference Stage slider all the way to the left so that it
reads “Not Used”.

3. Select OK.

A Stage 1 tab now exists along with the SRF tabs at the bottom of the
view. You can now see the results of Stage 1 by selecting the Stage 1 tab.

You may wonder why SRF: 1 was used as a reference stage for
displacements. In order to factor out the elastic displacements due to
rebound and stress redistribution (initial stresses and body forces are
rarely in equilibrium to start with), the displacements at the minimum
SRF stage are factored out. Thus all SRF displacements are relative to
the displacements that occur at the minimum SRF stage.

Note: the results of Stage 1 and SRF: 1 are slightly different even though
the material properties are the same for both. The reason is the different
tolerance and iteration count used for each. To accelerate the SSR
analysis, speed optimized values of tolerance and number of iterations
are used.

 You can edit the tolerance and number of iterations used in the
SSR analysis in the advanced options of the Strength Reduction
page in the Project Settings dialog of the RS2 modeler.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Shear Strength Reduction Analysis 8-12

 You can edit the tolerance and number of iterations used for
stages prior to the SSR analysis (in this case Stage 1), under the
Stress Analysis page in Project Settings.

This concludes the tutorial, you may now exit the RS2 Interpret and RS2
Model programs.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual