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pyBIMstab: Application software for 2D slope stability analysis of block-in-

matrix and homogeneous materials

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DOI: 10.1016/j.softx.2018.11.003

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 SoftwareX 7 (2018) 383–387

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

SoftwareX
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/softx

Original software publication

pyBIMstab: Application software for 2D slope stability analysis of

block-in-matrix and homogeneous materials
∗
Exneyder A. Montoya-Araque , Ludger O. Suarez-Burgoa
Grupo de Investigación de Geotecnia, Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: We present the application software, pyBIMstab, which evaluates the factor of safety (FS) against sliding
Received 5 August 2018 of slopes made of either blocks-in-matrix (bimsoil\bimrock) taking into account the tortuosity of failure
Received in revised form 6 November 2018 surface or homogeneous materials with typical circularly-shaped surfaces. In the case of tortuous surfaces,
Accepted 6 November 2018
they are found with the optimum pathfinding algorithm named A∗ (A star).
Keywords: © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
Tortuous failure surface (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Bimrock
Bimsoil
Slope stability
A∗ algorithm

Code metadata
Current code version v0.1.3
Permanent link to code/repository used for this code version https://github.com/ElsevierSoftwareX/SOFTX_2018_137
Legal Code License BSD-2-Clause
Code versioning system used git
Software code languages, tools, and services used Python 3
Compilation requirements, operating environments & dependencies Operative systems: Ubuntu ≥ 16.04, Windows ≥ 7. Python packages: numpy
≥ 1.13.3, scipy ≥ 1.1.0, matplotlib ≥ 2.2.2, shapely ≥ 1.6.4
If available Link to developer documentation/manual pybimstab.readthedocs.io
Support email for questions eamontoyaa@gmail.com
losuarezb@unal.edu.co

1. Motivation and significance
Slopes can be composed by many types of materials, from
entirely soil to a rock mass. Between those two extremes, there
is a specific type of material defined by strong blocks embedded
into a weak matrix, which were named blocks in matrix materials.
It is called bimrock when the matrix is rocky and bimsoil when is
soil [1].
Bimrocks are geological mixtures composed of geotechnically
significant rock blocks within a bonded rock matrix of finer texture.
‘‘Geotechnical significance’’ means that there is a sufficient volume
of blocks with mechanical contrast between the blocks and matrix
to make the failure surfaces to pass around the blocks and not
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: eamontoyaa@unal.edu.co (E.A. Montoya-Araque),
losuarezb@unal.edu.co (L.O. Suarez-Burgoa).
across them. From a geological perspective, they include melanges,
sheared serpentinites, breccias, decomposed granites, weathered
rocks with corestones, and tectonically fragmented rocks such as
fault rocks.
In slope stability analysis, the limit equilibrium method (LEM)
is commonly used to solve the equilibrium equations usually by di-
viding the sliding mass into slices. The sliding mass is defined after
assuming a failure surface whose geometry depends on the ma-
terial and its geomechanic properties. For example, in soil slopes,
circular or non-circular (i.e. polyline) surfaces are frequently as-
sumed, however, when they are prone to shallow slips, it is usual
to use infinite-slope failure surfaces with a planar shape, which is
the simplest case of the LEM. On the other hand, in rock slopes,
using the kinematic analysis due to the presence of discontinuities
is more recurrent.
In the case of bimsoil\bimrock, the failure surface passes in-
disputably around the blocks like a maze; this phenomenon was

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2018.11.003
2352-7110/© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
384 E.A. Montoya-Araque and L.O. Suarez-Burgoa / SoftwareX 7 (2018) 383–387

named tortuosity of failure surfaces [1] after observations on lab-

oratory samples [2]. The matrix to block strength ratio, block
proportion relative to the matrix, block orientation, block size and
block shape are the factors that influence the tortuous nature of
the failure path [3].
Tortuosity also depends on the scaling dimension of the prob-
lem that is named the characteristic engineering dimension (Lc ),
which in the case of slope stability problems is the slope height
(sh ); based on the foregoing, [4] established the thresholds of block
sizes to deal with engineering problems. The smallest block size
can reach the 5 % of Lc , so in slope stability problems, blocks smaller
than 0.05sh belong to the matrix. When the largest block size is
greater than 75 % of Lc , the blocks must be characterized as a rock
mass.
Using LEM, tortuous paths in a two-dimensional approach have
been employed in different stability analysis of slopes consisting
of bimsoil\bimrock; nevertheless, the tortuous failure path was
traced visually, which always implied subjectivity in choosing the
optimum path. Once the failure path has been traced, it was evalu- Fig. 1. Directory of the application software with the modules (.py files) and their
ated in a closed code and commercial software (e.g. [3,5,6]). In ad- respective classes in the right column.
dition, it has been assumed that the portion of the slope above the
tortuous path is made only of matrix, not blocks, and their weights
are neglected; this assumption is uncertain, especially when there The GLE formulation was proposed as a way to solve the two
is a strong contrast between matrix and block densities. FS equations; one of them solves the equilibrium with respect
Although there is a software package available named to forces and the other solves it with respect to moments. Each
INCL.BAS [5], it is limited to specific cases such as regularly spaced equation can be solved for a range of interslice shear-normal forces
and inclined rectangular blocks. That software defines the tortuous (X and E respectively), which are related by mean of a predefined
failure surface joining the opposite corners of two adjacent rectan- interslice function (f (x)) and a proportion of it (λ) with the follow-
gular blocks. INCL.BAS is depreciated and is no longer maintained. ing equation
pyBIMstab was developed as there are no software packages that
automatically generate tortuous failure surfaces and perform 2D X = λf (x)E . (1)
slope stability analysis by the LEM. In addition, pyBIMstab also can
The objective of GLE is to solve both equations for different
evaluate non-circular surfaces. Since bimsoil\bimrock can be input
values of λ. Each equation has an associated curve of λ vs FS, both
as variables to pyBIMstab, the weight of the blocks is considered in
curves are used to solve the LEM by getting their intersection point
the assessment and the tortuous failure surfaces can be optimally
as is shown in the plots of illustrative examples.
obtained if the geological and geotechnical models of the slope
are discretized in a gridded graph and applied on the optimum
pathfinding algorithm A∗ [7]. 2.1. Software architecture
Taking into account the tortuous and typical circular surfaces,
previous researchers have found significant differences between pyBIMstab is divided into ten modules as Fig. 1 shows: nine
the results of slope stability analyses (e.g. [3,6,8]). In most of the are developed under the object-oriented paradigm and one under
analyzed situations, the FS obtained in the second case was greater the functional paradigm. Each one has its respective classes in the
than the first. However, this situation is not always true. For in- front. Some have the exclusive objective of defining a part of the
stance, the most detrimental geometric configuration consists of geometric structure of the model (e.g. bim.py, slipsurface.py,
elongated blocks oriented with their major side parallel to the face slope.py, and watertable.py), and other modules contain sup-
of the slope [3]. Therefore, it is convenient to investigate the other portive tools (e.g. polygon.py, smoothcurve.py and tools.py).
variables that can affect FS, which are not necessarily related to the The module astar.py is in charge of finding the optimum tor-
block shapes and orientations (in its worst unfavorable conditions), tuous slip surface when the slope model is a bimsoil\bimrock.
for instance the geometric variables of slope, the strength param- Finally, the modules slices.py and slopestabl.py use the GLE
eters of matrix, the contrast of unit weight between blocks and method to perform stability analysis [9].
matrix, the magnitude and direction of external loads, and more.
This type of analysis can be performed with pyBIMstab. 2.2. Software functionalities
Even more, it is convenient to offer to the practitioners and the
academy a tool to determine the FS against sliding by taking into The features of pyBIMstab are listed below (more detail can be
account the tortuous path rather than only typical, regular surfaces. found in the online documentation).
Finally, since pyBIMstab is an open-source application software,
the possibilities for applying it in research are great. • A∗ pathfinding algorithm can be used to find the tortuous
surfaces.
2. Software description • Since the GLE method [9] was implemented for LEM, the
Morgestern & Price [10] and Spencer [11] methods are avail-
pyBIMstab is an open-source application software that was able through the attribute interSlcFunc of the class
written in Python3 under the object-oriented paradigm for ap- SlopeStabl.
plying LEM through the general limit equilibrium (GLE) formula- • Others LEM can be chosen by setting the attribute nLambda of
tion [9] with the aim of evaluating the slope stability consisting the class SlopeStabl equal to zero. It includes Fellenius [12],
of either bimsoil\bimrock or homogeneous materials, it means, Bishop simplified [13] and Janbu simplified [14].
tortuous or circular surfaces. • After each assessment, the convergence plot is shown.
 E.A. Montoya-Araque and L.O. Suarez-Burgoa / SoftwareX 7 (2018) 383–387
• The slope stability analysis can be performed with or without
considering a water table surface.
• Either tortuous and circular surfaces can be evaluated through
the classes CircularSurface and TortuousSurface of
the module slipsurface.py.
• Tortuous surfaces can be optional forced to follow a preferred
path, like a circular one by using the attribute
preferredPath of the class TortuousSurface.
• Pseudo-static analysis can be performed through the hori-
zontal coefficient of the seismic force by using the attribute
Kh of the class SlopeStabl. This variable always decreases
the FS due to it is a destabilizing force and produces negative
moments in most of the slices depending on the position of
the rotation point.
• External loads can be applied to the slope surface even at
any angle by using the method setExtLoads of the class
Slices.
3. Illustrative examples
We present two examples demonstrating the capabilities of
pyBIMstab. The first sample has a slope of homogeneous material
and a circularly-shaped surface. The second example, is a complex
example, in which the tortuosity of failure surface is taken into
account for a bimsoil\bimrock material that composes the slope.
3.1. Example 1
The script in Listing 1 illustrates the simplest slope analysis that
can be performed with pyBIMstab and Fig. 2 shows the outcome
of the analysis. In this example, the geological and geotechnical
models refer to a homogeneous material of a slope; therefore, the
slip surface has a traditional circular shape.
Listing 1: Example of the simplest usage of pyBIMstab.
Lengths: ft, unit weights: pcf, cohesion: psf and friction angle: degrees.
# Example Case 1 F i g . 9 ( F red lu nd & Krahn , 1977)
from pybimstab . slope import AnthropicSlope
from pybimstab . s l i p s u r f a c e import C i r c u l a r S u r f a c e
from pybimstab . s l i c e s import MaterialParameters , S l i c e s
from pybimstab . s l o p e s t a b l import S l o p e S t a b l
slope = AnthropicSlope ( slopeHeight =40 , slopeDip = [ 2 , 1 ] ,
crownDist =60 , t o e D i s t =30 , depth =20)
s u r f a c e = C i r c u l a r S u r f a c e ( slopeCoords = slope . coords , d i s t 1 =45.84 ,
d i s t 2 =158.73 , r a d i u s =80)
m a t e r i a l = MaterialParameters ( cohesion =600 , f r i c t A n g l e =20 ,
unitWeight =120 ,
wtUnitWeight = 6 2 . 4 )
s l i c e s = S l i c e s ( m a t e r i a l = material ,
s l i p S u r f C o o r d s = s u r f a c e . coords ,
slopeCoords = slope . coords , numSlices =50 ,
watertabCoords=None , bim=None )
s t a b A n a l y s i s = S l o p e S t a b l ( s l i c e s , seedFS =1 , Kh=0 ,
i n t e r S l c F u n c =1 ,
minLambda=0 , maxLambda= 0 . 6 )
f i g = stabAnalysis . plot ( )
Example 1 was taken from [9] where the FS value was deter-
mined to be fs = 2.076. A different algorithm for computing the FS
using the Morgenstern & Price method obtained fs = 2.075 [15].
pyBIMstab gives a value of fs = 2.072 that is consistent with the
two measurements and it is a good way to validate the software.
3.2. Example 2
The script in Listing 2 illustrates a complex slope analysis that
can be performed with pyBIMstab. Fig. 3 shows the outcome of this
analysis. In this example, the geological and geotechnical models
are representing a slope consisting of a simplified bimsoil\bimrock
material; therefore, the slip surface has a tortuous shape.
385
Listing 2: Example of a more complex usage of pyBIMstab.
Lengths: m, unit weights: kN m−3 , cohesion: kPa and friction angle: degrees.
from numpy import ar ray
from pybimstab . slope import NaturalSlope
from pybimstab . watertable import WaterTable
from pybimstab . bim import BlocksInMatrix
from pybimstab . s l i p s u r f a c e import C i r c u l a r S u r f a c e ,
from pybimstab . s l i p s u r f a c e import TortuousSurface
from pybimstab . s l i c e s import MaterialParameters , S l i c e s
from pybimstab . s l o p e s t a b l import S l o p e S t a b l
t e r r a i n C o o r d s = a rra y (
[[ − 2.49 , 0 . 1 , 1 . 7 , 3 . 8 9 , 5 . 9 , 8 . 1 2 , 9 . 8 7 , 1 3 . 2 9 ,
20.29 , 21.43 , 22.28 , 23.48 , 24.65 , 25.17] ,
[ 1 8 . 1 6 , 1 7 . 8 8 , 1 7 . 2 8 , 1 5 . 7 3 , 1 4 . 3 1 , 1 3 . 5 8 , 13 ,
3.61 , 3.61 , 3.32 , 2.71 , 2.23 , 1.21 , 0.25]])
slope = NaturalSlope ( t e r r a i n C o o r d s )
bim = BlocksInMatrix ( slopeCoords = slope . coords ,
blockProp = 0 . 2 5 , t i l e S i z e = 0 . 7 5 ,
seed =487667068)
wtDepths = ar ray ( [ [ 0 , 5 , 10 , 1 5 ] , [ 8 , 7 , 3 , 0 ] ] )
watertable = WaterTable ( slopeCoords = slope . coords ,
watertabDepths=wtDepths ,
smoothFactor =3)
p r e f e r r e d P a t h = C i r c u l a r S u r f a c e ( slopeCoords = slope . coords ,
d i s t 1 =5 , d i s t 2 = 1 5 . 5 ,
r a d i u s =15)
s u r f a c e = TortuousSurface (
bim , d i s t 1 =4 , d i s t 2 = 1 5 . 5 , h e u r i s t i c = ’ euclidean ’ ,
r e v e r s e L e f t = F a l s e , reverseUp=True , smoothFactor =2 ,
p r e f e r r e d P a t h = p r e f e r r e d P a t h . coords , p r e f P a t h F a c t =2)
m a t e r i a l = MaterialParameters (
cohesion =15 , f r i c t A n g l e =23 , unitWeight =17 ,
blocksUnitWeight =21 , wtUnitWeight = 9 . 8 )
s l i c e s = S l i c e s ( m a t e r i a l = material , s l i p S u r f C o o r d s = s u r f a c e . coords ,
slopeCoords = slope . coords , numSlices =10 ,
watertabCoords= watertable . coords , bim=bim )
s l i c e s . r o t a t i o n P t = p r e f e r r e d P a t h . center
s t a b A n a l y s i s = S l o p e S t a b l ( s l i c e s , seedFS =1 , Kh=0 , i n t e r S l c F u n c =1 ,
nLambda=30 , maxLambda= 0 . 7 , minLambda=−1)
f i g = stabAnalysis1 . plot ( )
4. Impact and discussion
pyBIMstab can be used to study several kinds of slope stability
scenarios in 2D including geomaterials composed of a mixture of
rock blocks in soil matrix, e.g., the variation in the FS for different
block proportions or different block-matrix density ratios.
Finding the critical slip surface (CSS) is the objective of slope
stability analysis in engineering projects. This capability is a po-
tential improvement of pyBIMstab. For instance, in Ref. [16], an
iterative algorithm is implemented to determine the CSS of simple
slopes by choosing pairs of random points at the abscissas which
are projected vertically to the slope surface, then, a circle is geo-
metrically defined with a radius that is increased from a minimum
to a maximum length defined by the user.
pyBIMstab is able to define the bimsoil\bimrock by mean of the
class BlocksInMatrix of the module bim.py. The blocks can be
randomly generated only with square shapes as was shown in the
illustrative examples. Nevertheless, the geological-geotechnical
model of the slope can be improved as the blocks may have other
shapes, especially rounded when they have suffered transporta-
tion or weathering processes. pc4BIMS is an application software
presented in Ref. [17] that is able to pack circles inside irregular
and closed polygons, such as the boundary of a slope. Taken
into account the foregoing, pc4BIMS can be used to improve the
generation of blocks of a bimsoil\bimrock with circular shapes as
is shown in Fig. 4.
Since the internal distribution of blocks is never known, after
several random generations of blocks with a specific shape and
block proportion given, it is possible to statistically determine
the stability of a slope consisting of bimsoil\bimrock. That could
be possible after integrating pc4BIMS and pyBIMstab in a single
program.
4.1. Software limitations
Although pyBIMstab is useful for its several functionalities, is
also important to present its limitations:
386 E.A. Montoya-Araque and L.O. Suarez-Burgoa / SoftwareX 7 (2018) 383–387

Fig. 2. Outcome of Example 1. Left side shows the convergence plot of the GLE method and the right side shows the scheme of a homogeneous slope and the sliding mass
divided into slices in red. Slope dimensions in feet. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 3. Outcome of Example 2. Left side shows the convergence plot of the GLE method and the right side shows the scheme of slope consisting of bimsoil\bimrock and
the sliding mass divided into slices in red. Slope dimensions in meters. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

• There is no control over the coherence of the parameter units.

Fig. 4. Slope consisting of a block-in-matrix material where circles represent ran-
domly generated blocks.
• There is no graphic user interface to interact with the appli-
cation software. All the variables must be input by mean of
scripts or inline commands.
• The geometry framework was developed such that the failure
direction can only be from left to right.
• Although the path-finding algorithm is computationally opti-
mum, it will require more time as long as the cells represent-
ing the bimsoil\bimrock are smaller.
• The matrix strength is considered homogeneous, it means, no
layers with different properties are allowed unless the source
code is edited.
• The greatest constraint of pyBIMstab is the natural possibility
of GLE method not to converge to a solution due to the
irregular shape of a tortuous surface. Indeed, most the cases
are not possible to use it, and the user must settle with
 E.A. Montoya-Araque and L.O. Suarez-Burgoa / SoftwareX 7 (2018) 383–387
Fig. 5. Non-convergence of GLE method. Block prop.: 40 %. Left side shows the convergence plot of the GLE method which in this case has no common solution for moments
and forces equilibrium. Right side shows the scheme of slope consisting of bimsoil\bimrock and the sliding mass divided into slices in red. Slope dimensions in meters.
Bishop simplified, Janbu simplified or Fellenius methods.
The non-convergence of GLE manifests itself with the two
lines of fs of moments and forces vs. λ that never cross
each other as is shown in Fig. 5. After several observations,
a tendency that explains the non-convergence is related
to the trend of fm line to be parallel to ff for high values
of λ.
5. Conclusions
An open-source Python package was developed and presented.
The application software is named pyBIMstab and uses the general
limit equilibrium (GLE) method that satisfies the equilibrium of
forces and moments for evaluating the FS against sliding of slopes
consisting of either blocks-in-matrix or homogeneous materials.
In addition, the problem of tracing tortuous slip surfaces by hand
and its subjectivity is solved with the implementation of the A∗
algorithm.
pyBIMstab can be used to develop new research around the
bimsoil\bimrock or in the practice of slope stability in geotechnical
engineering. After some improvements related to the generation
of blocks, it can become a tool to define statistically the stability
of slopes consisting of bimsoil\bimrock instead of deterministic
approaches.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Colciencias and Universidad Nacional de
Colombia for allowing the economic resources and the facilities of
the Civil Engineering Department, where the current research was
done in the frame of the ‘‘young researchers’’ program.
Declaration of interest
No conflicts of interest.
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