Stability of a frictional material layer resting on a viscous half-space (Q1319076)

The paper deals with the stability of a geological two-layer system composed of a frictional material of finite thickness, resting on a viscous half-space of lower density. A general variational formulation is presented, followed by asymptotic analyses. Results obtained are compared with the ones resulting by FEM. The parametric study reveals the influence of different parameters: geometry and density contrasts, in situ stress, material cohesion, work-hardening, friction angle, etc. The study shows the importance of each factor to the stability.