The release of Slide 7.0 marks one of the most ambitious Rocscience program upgrades in

recent years. Slide, a 2D limit equilibrium slope stability and groundwater analysis program

for soil or rock slopes, is due for beta release in October 2015, and will include the following

major new functionality and improvements:

Slide7.0Beta

• Statistical correlation of material properties

• Program interface improvements

• Engine Optimization, new search options, and more…

Multi-Scenario Modeling

Sarma Non-Vertical Slice Analysis

New Seismic Analysis Options

• Soil geometry profile option

• Use borehole data to define material layers

• New pile analysis options

• New material modeling options

Click here to be a Slide 7.0 Beta Tester!

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 1

Multi-scenario modeling

A major new modeling feature in Slide 7.0 is the ability to create and edit multiple variations of a Slide model within a single overall document file. This option is turned on in the Project Settings dialog:

There are two different “levels” within the multi-scenario option:

1. Models 2. Scenarios

The sidebar document viewer in Slide 7.0 allows you to create and organize your models and scenarios. The following example illustrates a file with two Models (slope angles 40 and 45 degrees) with four Scenarios per model.

The distinction between models and scenarios is as follows:

• The primary attribute of a “model” is that geometry is constant (i.e. boundaries). If you edit the geometry it will automatically propagate to all scenarios within that model. To analyze different geometries (e.g. cut back a slope) you can do this by creating multiple copies of your model and modifying the geometry as required for each model.

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 2

• Multiple “scenarios” for a given “model” allow you to change input parameters for each scenario (e.g. material properties, groundwater, support, search methods) while maintaining constant geometry within a particular model.

New models or scenarios can be easily created, copied and edited as required. This is all done within the umbrella of a single (compressed zip) document which can be edited, saved and computed as a single file (file extension *.slmd).

Another feature is that the material properties database is common to all models/scenarios, so there is no need to redefine properties for each model.

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 3

Soil Geometry Profile

The Soil Profile option is a further extension of geometry modeling capabilities. It allows you to define a master profile of your material boundaries (e.g. geological or soil profile). The profile is then used as a base template, over which you can use the regular boundary options (e.g. Add External, Add Material) to superimpose different slope geometries (e.g. cut back a slope).

• This can be used in conjunction with the multi-model/multi-scenario option (described above), to analyze different slope geometries, while maintaining a constant master profile.

• The profile boundaries can be defined explicitly, or they can be automatically computed from borehole measurements.

The Soil Profile option is turned on in Project Settings:

This will enable the Profile workflow tab, and the profile modeling options in the menu and toolbar. In the example below, profile boundaries have been entered explicitly using the Add Soil Profile Boundary option. The overall extents of the profile are defined by a simple rectangular box (left, right, top, bottom), with coordinates entered in the sidebar.

Profile boundaries defined explicitly as user-defined polylines

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 4

After the profile boundaries are defined, you can go to the regular Geometry tab to define the External boundary and other material boundaries as required. In the example below, an External Boundary has been defined on top of the soil profile, and the profile boundaries have been cropped accordingly.

External boundary defined on top of profile boundaries

To analyze a different slope angle, for example, you can edit the existing external boundary, or delete and create a new external boundary. The profile boundaries will remain constant allowing you to test different model geometries over your master profile.

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 5

Profile from borehole data

If you are using the Soil Profile option, the profile boundaries can be automatically interpolated from borehole data, by entering the borehole information in the Borehole Editor dialog, shown below.

Profile boundaries automatically interpolated from borehole measurements (linear interpolation)

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 6

External boundary defined over profile created from borehole measurements

The boreholes are assumed to be vertical. The profile boundaries can be obtained from linear interpolation of the borehole data, or various non-linear interpolation options are also available, as shown below using thin-plate spline interpolation.

Profile boundaries interpolated from boreholes using thin-plate spline method

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 7

Soil Profile + Multi Scenario modeling

The Soil Profile option is particularly useful in conjunction with the multi-scenario modeling option. This creates a three level modeling hierarchy as follows:

1. The Soil Profile is constant for ALL models/scenarios. If the Profile is edited, the changes will propagate to all models / scenarios.

2. The External boundary is constant for EACH model, but can vary between models. If the external boundary is edited, it will propagate to all scenarios within that model.

3. All other input can be modified individually for EACH scenario.

Also note:

• The material properties database is common to all models/scenarios. • Any number of models and/or scenarios can be defined. • Each model will always have at least one scenario.

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 8

New Seismic Analysis Options including Newmark Analysis

In addition to the original pseudo-static loading option in earlier versions of Slide, three new seismic analysis options are now available in Slide 7.0. These are enabled in the Project Settings dialog:

• Locate surface with minimum critical horizontal seismic acceleration - instead of factor of safety computation, the critical seismic coefficient (Kc) is computed for each surface (i.e. the seismic coefficient which results in factor of safety = 1 for a slip surface).

• Staged pseudo-static method – similar to staged rapid drawdown, computes seismic strength based on static analysis first.

• Newmark analysis – a sliding block / permanent deformation analysis, used to estimate slope behaviour during earthquakes. Rigid block, decoupled or fully coupled assumptions. Define / import seismic earthquake records. Engine is based on the SLAMMER program which has been incorporated into Slide.

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 9

Slammer: http://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/12b1/

Reference: Jibson, R.W., Rathje, E.M., Jibson, M.W., and Lee, Y.W., 2013, SLAMMER—Seismic Landslide Movement Modeled using Earthquake Records (ver.1.1, November 2014): U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods, book 12, chap. B1, unpaged.

Seismic earthquake records are entered / imported in the Define Seismic records dialog.

When you run a Slide model using Newmark analysis, you will obtain the Newmark displacement value for each slip surface, with the critical surface (maximum displacement) highlighted as shown below.

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 10

New Pile Support Analysis Options

For defining the mobilization of pile support forces during slope stability analysis, a new pile property option is available in Slide 7.0, which works in conjunction with RSPile - a brand new Rocscience program for pile analysis, currently under development.

For example, RSPile can be used to generate a lateral resistance plot as shown below.

500mm diameter, 15m long pile embedded in 3 soil layers

The pile is loaded by laterally moving soil to depths of each point on this graph (modeling the depth of intersection of a slip surface and a slope supporting pile). This graph shows the resistance provided by the pile (free head) for an acceptable user specified soil sliding displacement (30mm in this case). To obtain these results, the p-y method of soil-pile interaction was used.

RSPile can generate both lateral and axial force diagrams for embedded piles, which can then be imported into Slide 7.0 to determine the total mobilization of support force along the length of the pile. The pile support forces are then used in the limit equilibrium slope stability analysis.

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 11

Sarma non-vertical slice analysis

Another feature requested by Slide users is the ability to analyze rock slope stability assuming non-vertical sliding blocks. This is now available via the Sarma Non-Vertical Slice analysis option, under the Methods page in Project Settings:

Sarma non-vertical slice analysis using 5 slices

For the Sarma Non-Vertical Slice method:

• The number of slices (blocks) can be user-defined or minimized • The interslice angles can be user-defined or optimized (for minimum safety factor) • The interslice shear strength can be user-defined (cohesion and phi) or can be derived as the average of

the material strengths through which the slice passes.

A simplified vertical slice version of the Sarma analysis can also be selected (from the list of vertical slice methods).

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 12

New Material Modeling Options

Slide 7.0 offers several new material modeling options, including:

• SHANSEP strength model - (Stress History and Normalized Soil Engineering Properties) used for modeling undrained shear strength of certain clay soils (Material Properties dialog).

• Tension cutoff for Mohr-Coulomb and several other strength models (Material Properties dialog)

• Specify alternate strength type above water surface (Material Properties dialog)

• Negative pore pressure can now be considered above water tables and piezo lines (Project Settings > Groundwater)

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 13

Statistical correlation of material properties

For probabilistic analysis, Slide 7.0 offers advanced statistical correlation of material properties.

• You can now define correlation coefficients between any two material parameters for a material, or across different materials.

• You can also fully equate materials during a probabilistic analysis (i.e. 100 percent correlation of material properties during random sampling).

This feature is particularly useful for correlation of anisotropic materials, so that realistic results can be obtained when generating random samples for multiple anisotropic materials.

Advanced material properties correlation dialog

Advanced correlation dialog to equate materials (100 percent correlation)

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 14

Slip surface Search Options

New slip surface search options include:

• Cuckoo Search – a fast and efficient method for locating critical non-circular slip surfaces, especially useful for complex models

• New Surface Filter options for filtering out sliding masses according to minimum total area or minimum total weight.

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 15

Interface Improvements

Slide 7.0 includes several important improvements to the user-interface.

Workflow tabs

The workflow tabs in the Slide modeler are located above the toolbar and below the main menu.

They are designed to assist with the logical process of model creation, starting with Profile or Geometry (boundaries) and progressing through the various modeling features (Loading & Support, Groundwater, Surfaces). When you select a workflow tab, you will notice that the toolbar options are updated to reflect the currently selected option.

The workflow tabs serve the following purposes:

• To guide you through the model creation process • To simplify the number of toolbar options which are available at once • Right-click context menus may vary depending on the currently selected workflow tab

Sidebar

The new interactive sidebar at the left of the screen, offers context-sensitive input of model parameters, and shortcuts to display options in both the model and interpret programs.

You can now click on any modeling entity or material region, and the sidebar will display the current input values, which can be directly edited in the sidebar, or you can select shortcuts to the main input dialogs for more extensive editing.

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 16

Sidebar Display Options, modeler and interpret

Large toolbar buttons

New large toolbar buttons make it easier to find what you’re looking for:

RocNews Fall 2015

Slide 7.0 Beta 17

Engine Optimization

The Slide 7.0 compute engine has been improved and optimized. Improved performance is achieved by utilizing multiple cores in performing intense computation. Particularly useful for probabilistic analysis with large number of samples, complex models or multi model/scenario mode.

For Sarma non-vertical slice analysis, an improved faster clipping algorithm has been implemented, and non-vertical slice angles are optimized.

64 bit support

Slide 7.0 has been updated to a 64 bit version, allowing for full memory usage and solving of larger problem sizes on 64 bit machines.

Summary

Slide 7.0 is a must-have upgrade that you will not want to miss. Click here to be a Slide 7.0 beta tester.