Application of spreadsheet to determining the critical failure surface of slopes

The key of analysis on slope stability is the determination of the critical failure surface. As for nonhomogeneous slopes sliding with noncircular failure surface, the existing methods are often too complex to extend in engineering. Based on the traditional method of Sarma,this paper provides a realizable method-spreadsheet method for determining the critical surface of slopes with an example.The method is proved to be brief and clear. It is worth being applied in geotechnical engineering. 