Stability Of Slopes

The Stability of Slopes The Stability of Slopes E.N.Bromhead First Published in 1986 by Blackie Academic & Professional. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Spon Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/. © 1986, 1992, 1999 E.N.Bromhead All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data ISBN 0-203-97535-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-419-25580-X (Print Edition) To my son, Nicholas, and my wife, Caryl Preface Slopes are either a natural consequence of geological and geomorphological evolution or the result of mankind’s perceived need to modify the landscape by direct or indirect means. Careful consideration of the stability and instability of natural or man-made slopes is central to good engineering practice, and there now exists a large body of knowledge concerning the various parameters, variables and models which are important to a clear understanding of the processes affecting the stability of slopes. This book draws on this body of knowledge and is directed specifically at engineers and engineering geologists, in practice or in academic life, who are interested in the stability of natural or man-made slopes. Geomorpho logists seeking to quan tify the mechanics of ‘slope-forming processes’ will also find much of interest. The reader who has had a grounding in basic soil mechanics will derive most benefit from this book. In this new edition, as well as correcting a number of minor text errors, I have taken the opportunity to revise and update the text throughout, as befits a progressive subject. Substantial changes include improved cross-referencing of text and figures, better halftone figures, a new chapter containing fourteen case studies, and a new appendix detailing a new widely-accepted method of analysis. This second edition was developed from the original typescript using WordStar, on an Apricot computer which was then used to do the final preparation of camera-ready copy using Ventura Publisher Professional Extension and a QMS PS810 laser printer. I would like to thank all those people who gave the first edition such a positive reception, notably reviewers Professor R.J.Chandler, Professor D.G.Fredlund, Mr A.L.Little and Professor M.Popescu, and everybody who wrote with queries or corrections, especially Dr R.J.Pine, Professor B.Voight and Dr W.Schoberg, I thank also my close colleagues and associates John Hutchinson, Michael Kennard, Richard Pugh, Len Threadgold, Martin Chandler, Nick Lambert and Neil Dixon, and more latterly, Ross Sandman, Mike Cooper and Helen Rendell. ENB Contents 1 An introduction to slope instability 1 2 Natural slopes 31 3 Fundamental properties of soil and rocks 62