Improved genetic algorithm and its application to determination of critical slip surface with arbitrary shape in soil slope

Abstract

In order to overcome the problem of being trapped by the local minima encountered in applying the simple genetic algorithm (GA) to search the critical slip surface of the slope, an improved procedure based on the harmony search algorithm is proposed. In the searching computation, the new solutions are obtained from the whole information of the current generation. The proposed method may be applied to calculate the minimum factors of safety of two complicated soil slopes. Comparison of the results with existing examples given by other authors has shown that the proposed method is feasible for stability analysis of soil slopes.

Keywords

slope stability / limit equilibrium / factor of safety / genetic algorithm / harmony search algorithm / arbitrary slip surface