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za <br />METHOD OF PERFORMING SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSES <br />A Dames & Moore computer program and computer <br />facilities were used for the stability analyses. The <br />program utilized the simplitied Bishop method of slope <br />stability analysis. This is a method -of -slices solution <br />in which the failure surface is assumed to be an arc of <br />a circle, and the circular arc is divided into vertical <br />slices in the computer to facilitate calculations. The <br />soil conditions, groundwater conditions, and slope geom- <br />etry are modeled by straight lines, and the computer is <br />programed to automatically search for the circular arc <br />with the lowest factor of safety. The computer can be <br />programed to analyze the stability of an embankment under <br />simulated earthquake conditions. For these calculations, <br />a horizontal force, expressed as a percentage of the gra- <br />vitational force, is applied to the soil mass to simulate <br />earthquake loading conditions. <br />The factor of safety derived from the computer <br />analysis is defined as the ratio of the summation of <br />forces along a circular arc which resist failure to the <br />summation of forces tending to induce failure. There- <br />fore, factors of safety greater than 1 generally indi- <br />cate stable conditions, while factors of safety less <br />than 1 indicate potentially unstable conditions. <br />GAMES L' MOOfIE <br />