Development of an Educational Tool for Deterministic and Probabilistic Slope Stability Analysis

This research consists of the development of a new educational tool for calculations of 2D slope stability problems, named PNW-SLOPE. Slope stability has been considered one of the most important topics in geotechnical engineering for many years, so this is a subject which students should build a good background in the university. This program was created in Microsoft Excel with the aid of VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). The use of VBA allowed the creation of a good user interface, therefore those who are using the program can easily follow the instructions to create, analyze the model and check the results. Even though there are many commercial programs with the same application, this research presents a new alternative, more focused on educational purposes. PNW-SLOPE is divided in several modules.The first consists of the geometry definition of the slope. The second module consists of a deterministic slope stability analysis considering limit equilibrium method and the method of slices. The third module consists of a probability analysis considering Monte Carlo simulation. With these two options, users can compare both analysis and understand how important is the consideration of probability analysis in Geotechnical Engineering. This is a pertinent topic nowadays, since reliability analysis is increasingly being incorporated in standards and design codes throughout the world. An additional module was created for rock slope stability problems in which the failure results from sliding on a single planar surface dipping into the excavation. Several examples are presented to demonstrate some of the features of PNW-SLOPE and results are verified with commercial programs such as Geostudio Slope/w and Rocscience Slide 2018.