SLOPE RELIABILITY-ANALYSIS USING GENERALIZED-METHOD OF SLICES

Chen and Morgenstern extended Morgenstern and Price's method of slices by expressing force and moment equilibrium in two equations involving multiple integrals. In the present study a practical nested quadratur e integration procedure is proposed and implemented in a spreadsheet, to obtain the factor of safety and side force inclinations that satisf y the Chen-Morgenstem equations. Since the deterministic factor-of-saf ety analysis does not explicitly reflect the uncertainties of the para meters that affect performance, the paper next considers the Hasofer-L ind second moment reliability index. It is shown that extending from t he deterministic analysis--a demanding task in its own right, traditio nally--to the hitherto equally complicated reliability index computati on requires little extra effort. The spreadsheet approach is powerful and versatile, yet practical, and it affords the user an appreciation of what is being implemented.