Reliability parameter back analysis of bedding rock slope with multi-layer slide surfaces

Bedding slope is one of the most common forms of landslides, and determining the shear strength parameters of the sliding surface is essential for the slope stability analysis and engineering design. Due to the different values of shear strength parameters of different sliding surfaces and the existence of the interlayer shear effect during sliding, it is difficult to determine the shear strength parameters of the bedding slope with the multi-layer sliding surface, especially when the multi-layer sliding mass slides at different speeds at the same time. Therefore, the back analysis method combined with the upper-bound limit analysis method with reliability theory is proposed to back-analyze the shear strength parameters of the multi-layer sliding surface simultaneously. By analyzing three practical landslides in detail, the feasibility and applicability of the proposed method are validated. This method enables one to incorporate the effects of uncertainty and randomness of the parameters, and consider the interlayer shear effect, thus obtaining the most likely shear strength parameter combination and providing a reference for the strength parameter back analysis of bedding slopes based on the reliability theory.