Analysis of the numerical stability of soil slope using virtual-bond general particle dynamics

The stability of soil slope is a critical parameter in geological engineering. In order to better understand the failure of soil slope, the virtual-bond general particle dynamics (VB-GPD) method was developed to simulate the slope stability. Virtual-bond failure was defined by the Drucker-Prager yield criterion, and the initiation and growth of plastic deformation and failure of the soil slope was determined via the plastic-flow rule. Two numerical cases were presented to demonstrate the validity and feasibility of the proposed method. After the safety factor and failure process of these cases were derived, the numerical results obtained via VB-GPD were found to concur with the results obtained by FEM, demonstrating that the VB-GPD method can overcome the excessively skewed mesh for FEM. Hence, it was concluded that the VB-GPD method is efficient at simulating soil slope stability and studying the failure of soil slopes.