Abstract: The traditional strength reduction finite element method (SRFEM) is widely used in numerical analysis of slope stability. However, for the lack of considering geotechnical uncertainties, it still cannot be directly applied to the reliability analysis of slope stability, especially the dynamic stability problems. Thus, based on the SRFEM, the reliability analysis method of slope dynamic stability under seismic loading is proposed. In this method, the finite element limit analysis, dynamic analysis and reliability analysis are included to analyze the reliability problems of slope under seismic loading; and above process is realized in the numerical calculation program. For the traditional method, the acquirement of slope safety factor should be based on continuous manual pilot calculations, which makes batch processing impossible. But in the proposed method, above problem is solved through the improved slope dynamic failure criterion and the corresponding calculation program. The case study shows that the proposed method is significantly different from the general methods; it can relatively comprehensively reflect the dynamic characteristics of rock mass, the variability and correlation of material parameters. The results are closer to the reality. The proposed method not only widens the application scope of SRFEM, but also provides a new effective way for the reliability analysis of slope dynamic stability.

Key words: slope, finite elements, strength reduction method, dynamic reliability, reliability analysis