ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Geohazards and Georisks
This article is part of the Research TopicFailure Analysis and Risk Assessment of Natural Disasters Through Machine Learning and Numerical Simulation, volume VView all 6 articles
Comparative Analysis of Two Models of Progressive Failure of Slope
Provisionally accepted
- 1Wuhan Technical College of Communications, Wuhan, China
- 2Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
- 3Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, China
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The physical significance of traditional slice method for slope stability analysis involves reducing the peak strength of slices to characterize the degree of strength degradation in the post-failure zone of geological materials. This study applies the partial strength reduction method, using the unbalanced thrust method as an example to extend its traditional assumptions. By employing both a perfect elasto-plastic model and a novel shear stress-strain complete process constitutive model method, an extended slice method is proposed to simulate the progressive failure process of landslides, the two methods for determining the critical stress state of slices are also presented. This approach tightly links traditional landslide stability analysis with deformation behavior, revealing the stepwise movement characteristics of critical states during landsliding. Landslide failure occurs when the final slice reaches the critical state. Utilizing the Daochi Village landslide in China as a case study, the unbalanced thrust slice method under two modeling frameworks reveals evolutionary characteristics of physical-mechanical parameters during progressive failure. Results indicate that both slice models can effectively describe the progressive failure process of the Daochi Village landslide. The stability coefficient derived from the traditional partial strength reduction perfect elasto-plastic model exceeds that of the complete process constitutive model.
Keywords: progressive failure, partial strength reduction method, Constitutive model, landslide, Modeling frameworks
Received: 23 Sep 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 He, Lu, Yang and Lu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lier Lu
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