Slope Stability Software for Soft Soil EngineeringThe safety and stability of the primary sea and river dikes is essential for the Netherlands since over half the population lives below sea level. In total, 3,500 kilometres of primary dikes and over 100,000 kilometres of other embankments keep the country from flooding. The stability for the majority of the dikes and embankments has been checked for the past 75 years, using methods and tools developed by GeoDelft, the leading Dutch Institute in this field. In 2002 GeoDelft founded Delft GeoSystems.[img]http://www.delftgeosystems.nl/files/images_org/website%20bergambacht%20luchtfoto.jpg[/img]Improved river dike sectionThrough Delft GeoSystems these tools are now available in English for the International GeoEngineering community. Delft GeoSystems tools come with a comprehensive manual and extensive validation and verification reports. Technical support and updates are available free of charge for a period of 3 months. In addition, annual support contracts are available, which include updates.MStab is a slope stability package for soft soils. Delft GeoSystems’ tools follow best practice, and are developed according to modern software standards; therefore they are user-friendly and easy to learn. [img]http://www.delftgeosystems.nl/files/images_org/website%20bishop%20shear%20stress.jpg[/img] Bishop slip circle with shear stressesBesides features generally found in other slope stability packages, MStab offers several specific features for the design of river dikes and road embankments:Integration with the suite of other Delft GeoSystems products. For example, settlements can be introduced using the MSettle program. In this manner, safety analyses for various (settled) construction stages can be performed. [img]http://www.delftgeosystems.nl/files/images_org/website%20settled%20geometry.jpg[/img] Settled geometry can be imported from MSettlePractical reliability analysis, according to standards like the EuroCode7. Reliability analysis shows how variations in strength and water loads affect the factor of safety. One can easily switch between a partial factors concept and a probabilistic analysis. Besides input of the actual parameter distribution, one can use the defaults for an approximate analysis without additional input. [img]http://www.delftgeosystems.nl/files/images_org/website%20influence%20factors.jpg[/img] Influencing factors, resulting from a reliability analysisExperts in probabilistic analysis can use the Bishop probabilistic random field module, allowing users to take into account spatial variation of parameters. The Uplift module allows for the safety analysis of river embankments under the influence of changing water levels in aquifers. This may result in the uplift of the hinterland, a mechanism causing numerical difficulties in most FEM approaches. [img]http://www.delftgeosystems.nl/files/images_org/website%20uplift.jpg[/img] The movement of rising water levels as a result of extensive rainfall events is an important issue for river embankments. The Watex program from the Delft GeoSystems suite allows for fast analysis, resulting in time dependant water pressure distributions that can be imported into MStab.