Discussion Rf Extended Drucker-Prager Yield

Criterion in Slope Stability Analysis*

SU Kai1, LI Yin2

Earthquake Administration of hubei province

Wuhan, 430072, P. R. CHINA
Phone: +86-27-63921886
yubai1979@163.com

State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower

Engineering Science, Wuhan University,
Wuhan, 430072, P. R. CHINA
Phone: +86-27-63883668, Fax: +86-27-68772310
Suker8044@163.com

AbstractStrength reduction FEM is one of the main methods to

analyze slope stability. Based on the extended Drucker-Prager yield
criterion in ABAQUS, the plastic zone along a sliding surface from
slope toe to the top is assumed as the flag to tell the slope sliding. And
a typical soil slope stability is analyzed with extended Drucker-Prager
yield criterion with different section circle of Mohr-Coulomb yield
criterion, such as circumscribed circle, inscribed circle, internal
tangential circle and equivalent area circle. When the material
parameter K is 0.778, compared by the limit equilibrium methods, the
safety factors of slope in extended Drucker-Prager yield criterion with
circumscribed circle and inscribed circle of Mohr-Coulomb yield
criterion are bigger and internal tangential circle less, and equivalent
area circle closest. And with the increasing of K, the convergence of
iterative computation enhances and the safety factor of slope becomes
bigger.
Keywords slope stability, safety factor, strength reduction FEM, yield
criterion, ABAQUS

through along a sliding surface from slope toe to the top, the
non-convergence of solution in certain number times or under
given convergence conditions. WANG Dong (2007) gave a
conclusion that the safe factors of slope stability havent the
sensible difference when the different indications of the failure
of slope are adopted. And in the examples studied in the paper
plastic strain running-through along a sliding surface from
slope toe to the top is adopted as being the suitable indicator of
failure.

2. Determination of the Factor of Safety

The Factor of Safety (FOS) of the slope is defined here as
the factor by which the original shear strength parameters must
be divided in order to bring the slope to the failure. And the
factored shear strength parameters C ' and ' are defined as,

1. Introduction
Slope stability is one of the key problems in Geotechnical
Engineering. Limit equilibrium analysis method and FEM are
common methods in soil slope stability analysis. And Limit
equilibrium analysis method has a long history and abundant
using experience, which is used widely with its simple
computation. But with the further computation technology
development, FEM is more and more frequently used in soil
slope stability analysis. Compared with limit equilibrium
analysis method, FEM can meet static equilibrium equation,
strain compatibility. And nonlinear stress-strain relation can be
modeled in FEM analysis, in which odd-shaped and
discontinuity of materials can also be modeled. And the
possible direction of motion can be simulated, and then the
location of the site damage and the development of damage can
be carried out with FEM in slope stability analysis.
And the strength reduction finite element method is named
as SRFEM). And a great quantity computation is needed when
SRFEM is used, which would cost a lot of time in the past and
wont be a hinder any more with the further development of
computer technology, and recently SRFEM is used more and
more widely in slope stability analysis, Such as
Griffiths(1999).
But there is not an agreement in definition of the slope
failure, such as general shear strain or plastic strain running-

C ' = C SRF

(1)

' = arctan( tan SRF )

(2)

Where SRF is Strength Reduction Factor, is original

friction angle (in degree), C is original cohesion.
To find the true factor of FOS, it is necessary to initiate a
systematic search for the value of SRF that will just cause the
plug to slide failure. When the value is found, FOS is defined
as SRF, FOS=SRF.

3. Mohr-Coulomb equivalent area circle

yield criterion
The yield surface of origin DruckerPrager model, whose
yield surface section in the deviatoric plane is a circumscribed
circle of Mohr-Coulomb model at exterior angle point, is
defined as follows,

F = I 1 + J 2 k

(3)

Where:

I1 = x + y + z

, J2 =

1 2
2
s x + s 2y + s z2 + s xy
+ s 2yz + s zx2
2

and k are material parameters, which will be discussed later.

*Foundation item:National Natural Science Foundation of China(50809051)

U.S. Government work not protected by U.S. copyright

And we can find from Eq.(3) that I 1 and J 2 have no truck

with the shear strength parameters C and , and material
parameters and k are only realated to shear strength
parameters C and . We can get a series of concentric circles
with different value of C and . Then various mechanical
strength characteristics of shearing strength can be simulated
according to certain value of C and .

meridional plane (pq plane): a linear form, a hyperbolic form,

and a general exponent form (as shown in Fig.2).

In the light of relation of yield surface section in the

deviatoric plane of Mohr-Coulomb model and von Mises
(circular) model, three types of derived Drucker-Prager model
can be got, respectively, circumscribed circle of at exterior
angle point, circumscribed circle of at interior angle point and
inscribed circle, which are named as DP1 , DP2 and DP3.
Mohr-Coulomb equivalent area circle yield criterion is brought
up by XU Gan-cheng and ZHENG Ying-ren in 1990, in which
a von Mises (circular) section in the deviatoric stress plane is
used to model Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion on condition that
they have same area, named as DP4. And their relationships are
shown in Fig.1.

Figure 2 Typical yield criteria in the meridional plane of ABAQUS

And the linear form is adopted in the paper, which provides

a noncircular section in the deviatoric ( ) plane, associated
inelastic flow in the deviatoric plane, and separate dilation and
friction angles.
In this model a deviatoric stress measure is defined as t,

Figure 1 the yield surface on the deviator plane

Then material parameters and k can be carried out as

follows,
Table 1 The relationship of different yield criterion

name
DP1
DP2

DP3

DP4

2sin

6c cos

3 (3 + sin )
sin

3 (3 + sin )
3c cos

3 3 + sin 2

3 3 + sin 2

2 3 sin

6 3c cos

2 3 9 sin

3
q
1
1 r
1 + 1
2 K
K q

Where K ( , f ) is a material parameter. To ensure

convexity of the yield surface, 0.778 K 1.0 .

3 (3 sin )
6c cos

3 (3 sin )
2sin

t=

2 3 9 sin 2

4. Extended Drucker-Prager Model

Three yield criteria are provided in the extended DruckerPrager model. They offer different shaped yield surfaces in the

Figure 3 Typical yield surfaces for the linear model in the deviatoric plane

With this expression for the deviatoric stress measure, the

yield surface is defined as follows

F = t ptan d = 0

nodes above the sliding surface have obvious bigger

displacement than the others, shown in Fig. 7.

2
+ s 2yz + s zx2 ,
Where q = 3 J 2 = 3 s x2 + s 2y + s z2 + s xy
2

1
1
p = I 1 = x + y + z , d = ( 1 tan 3 ) c , if
3
3
hardening is defined by the uniaxial compression yield

stress, c . d = ( 1 K + tan 3 ) t , if hardening is defined by

the uniaxial tension yield stress, t , d = d , when hardening is
defined by the shear(cohesion) yield stress, d .

Figure 4 the model dimension in meters

$nd is the friction angle of the material in the meridional

stress plane. In the case of hardening defined in uniaxial
compression, the linear yield criterion precludes friction angles
>71.5. This is not seen as a limitation since it is unlikely
this will be the case for real materials.
Then and d can be got from Eq.(3) and Eq.(5) as
follows,
Figure 5 the pre-failure slope grid configuration

tan = 3 3 , d = 3 k

(6)

And in the paper hardening is defined by the uniaxial

compression yield stress, then c will be calculated from
and d , which is shown in Eq.(5).

5. Soil Parameters
The original shear strength parameters of potential slip
surface C (Cohesion) and (Friction angle) are adopted as,
C =15Kpa and =20 , and the deformation modulus
E=0.1Gpa, Poisson's ratio =0.3, unit weight
=0.020MN/m3, Dilation angle has the same value of
Friction angle .

Figure 6 the plastic zone of slope when DP4 is used (SRF=1.57)

According respective yield criteria model, parameters used

in ABAQUS/Standard can be carried out as shown in Table.2.
Table 2 Parameters used in ABAQUS/Standard with respective Extended
Drucker-Prager Model
Parameters used in
ABAQUS/Standard

Extended Drucker-Prager Model

DP1

DP2

DP3

DP4

Friction angle /

37.670

31.551

30.164

32.052

uniaxial compression yield

stress /MPa

0.0428

0.0318

0.0297

0.0326

37.670

31.551

30.164

32.052

Dilation angle
Parameter

Figure 7 the displacement of slope just befor sliding when DP4 is used
(SRF=1.57)

And when different yield criterion is adopted, the FOS

value decreases from DP1, DP2 to DP3, and the FOS value is
between DP2 and DP3 when DP4 is adopted, which is shown
in Table 3.
Table 3 FOS value when different yield criterion is used

0.778

6. Slop Stability Analysis

A typical slope model is built up as Fig.4. And model grid
is carried out as Fig.5 . When DP4 is used and SRF=1.57, a
running-through zone of plastic strain appears along a sliding
surface from slope toe to the top, shown in Fig. 6. And the

Bishop
method

FOS

1.59

extended Drucker-Prager model

DP1

DP2

DP3

DP4

1.88

1.63

1.49

1.57

And when DP4 is adopted, the FOS value is 1.57, which is

approximately equal to the FOS value (1.59) when Bishop
Method is adopted.

And during the progress of computational analysis, some

laws can be found that the computational convergence
becomes more and more difficult and FOS value decreases
when the K value decrease from 1.0 to 0.778.

References
[1]

7. Conclusion
The strength reduction finite element method can be
applied to slope stability analysis. And when the extended
Drucker-Prager model is adopted, four kinds of yield criteria
can be used according the respective material parameters. And
the plastic zone along a sliding surface from slope toe to the
top is adopted as the flag to tell slope failure. And it is
proposed that the Mohr-Coulomb equivalent area circle yield
criterion is suitable in soil slope stability analysis when
parameter K is 0.778.

[2]
[3]

[4]
[5]

[6]

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ABAQUS Theory Manual and Analysis User's Manual