Discussion of Extended Drucker-Prager Yield Criterion in Slope Stability Analysis

Strength 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.