A Numerical Investigation of the Progressive Failure of Jointed Rock Slope Subjected to Transient Seepage

2005 ◽  
Vol 297-300 ◽  
pp. 2579-2585
Author(s):  
S.K. Au ◽  
Shan Yong Wang ◽  
K.C. Lam ◽  
Chun An Tang
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracture ◽  
Slope Failure ◽  
Rock Slope ◽  
Progressive Failure ◽  
Horizontal Stress ◽  
Jointed Rock ◽  
Rock Joints ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Hydraulic Pressure ◽  
Fundamental Study

Disastrous rock slope failures have been posing a hazard to people’s lives and causing enormous economic losses worldwide. Numerical simulation of rock slope failure can lead to improve the degree of understand of such phenomenon so as to predict and avoid the occurrence of these disastrous events. In order to simulate the global behaviors of rock slope failure under the high seepage pressure and the local behaviors of the occurrence of hydraulic fracture in the pre-existing rock joints effectively, a powerful finite element tools F-RFPA2D, is adopted. The simulation takes into account of the growth of existing fractures and the initiation of new fractures under various of hydraulic pressure in different heterogeneities medium. The behavior of fluid flow and damage evolution, and their coupling action are studied in small specimens that are subjected to both hydraulic and biaxial compressive loadings. The influence of the ratio (the initial horizontal stress to the initial vertical stress) and the distance between the two existing cracks on the fracture propagation behaviors are investigated. Moreover, based on the fundamental study of hydraulic fracture, the progressive failure of rock slope under the influence of the increase in hydraulic pressure was also studied in the paper.

scholarly journals A temperature- and stress-controlled failure criterion for ice-filled permafrost rock joints

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 3333-3353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Mamot ◽  
Samuel Weber ◽  
Tanja Schröder ◽  
Michael Krautblatter
Keyword(s):  
Normal Stress ◽  
Failure Criterion ◽  
Slope Failure ◽  
Rock Slope ◽  
Shear Resistance ◽  
Stress Conditions ◽  
Rock Joints ◽  
Normal Stresses ◽  
Permafrost Rock ◽  
Limestone Sample

Abstract. Instability and failure of high mountain rock slopes have significantly increased since the 1990s coincident with climatic warming and are expected to rise further. Most of the observed failures in permafrost-affected rock walls are likely triggered by the mechanical destabilisation of warming bedrock permafrost including ice-filled joints. The failure of ice-filled rock joints has only been observed in a small number of experiments, often using concrete as a rock analogue. Here, we present a systematic study of the brittle shear failure of ice and rock–ice interfaces, simulating the accelerating phase of rock slope failure. For this, we performed 141 shearing experiments with rock–ice–rock “sandwich”' samples at constant strain rates (10−3 s−1) provoking ice fracturing, under normal stress conditions ranging from 100 to 800 kPa, representing 4–30 m of rock overburden, and at temperatures from −10 to −0.5 ∘C, typical for recent observed rock slope failures in alpine permafrost. To create close to natural but reproducible conditions, limestone sample surfaces were ground to international rock mechanical standard roughness. Acoustic emission (AE) was successfully applied to describe the fracturing behaviour, anticipating rock–ice failure as all failures are predated by an AE hit increase with peaks immediately prior to failure. We demonstrate that both the warming and unloading (i.e. reduced overburden) of ice-filled rock joints lead to a significant drop in shear resistance. With a temperature increase from −10 to −0.5 ∘C, the shear stress at failure reduces by 64 %–78 % for normal stresses of 100–400 kPa. At a given temperature, the shear resistance of rock–ice interfaces decreases with decreasing normal stress. This can lead to a self-enforced rock slope failure propagation: as soon as a first slab has detached, further slabs become unstable through progressive thermal propagation and possibly even faster by unloading. Here, we introduce a new Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion for ice-filled rock joints that is valid for joint surfaces, which we assume similar for all rock types, and which applies to temperatures from −8 to −0.5 ∘C and normal stresses from 100 to 400 kPa. It contains temperature-dependent friction and cohesion, which decrease by 12 % ∘C−1 and 10 % ∘C−1 respectively due to warming and it applies to temperature and stress conditions of more than 90 % of the recently documented accelerating failure phases in permafrost rock walls.

3D modeling of stratified and irregularly jointed rock slope and its progressive failure

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 2147-2163 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Ma ◽  
C. A. Tang ◽  
L. C. Li ◽  
P. G. Ranjith ◽  
M. Cai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
3D Modeling ◽  
Rock Slope ◽  
Progressive Failure ◽  
Jointed Rock ◽  
Jointed Rock Slope

Twenty-ninth Canadian Geotechnical Colloquium: The role of advanced numerical methods and geotechnical field measurements in understanding complex deep-seated rock slope failure mechanisms

2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 484-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Eberhardt
Keyword(s):  
Rock Mass ◽  
Numerical Modelling ◽  
Slope Failure ◽  
Rock Slope ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Progressive Failure ◽  
Strength Degradation ◽  
Rock Slope Stability ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Rock Mass Strength

The underlying complexity associated with deep-seated rock slope stability problems usually restricts their treatment to phenomenological studies that are largely descriptive and qualitative. Quantitative assessments, when employed, typically focus on assessing the stability state but ignore factors related to the slope’s temporal evolution including rock mass strength degradation, internal shearing, and progressive failure, all of which are key processes contributing to the final collapse of the slope. Reliance on displacement monitoring for early warning and the difficulty in interpreting the data without a clear understanding of the underlying mechanisms has led to a situation where predictions are highly variable and generally unreliable. This paper reviews current knowledge regarding prefailure mechanisms of massive rock slopes and current practices used to assess the hazard posed. Advanced numerical modelling results are presented that focus on the importance of stress- and strain-controlled rock mass strength degradation leading to failure initiation. Efforts to address issues related to parameter and model uncertainty are discussed in the context of a high alpine research facility, the “Randa In Situ Rockslide Laboratory”, where state-of-the-art instrumentation systems and numerical modelling are being used to better understand the mechanisms controlling prefailure deformations over time and their evolution leading to catastrophic failure.

scholarly journals A temperature- and stress-controlled failure criterion for ice-filled permafrost rock joints

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Mamot ◽  
Samuel Weber ◽  
Tanja Schröder ◽  
Michael Krautblatter
Keyword(s):  
Failure Criterion ◽  
Slope Failure ◽  
Rock Slope ◽  
Shear Failure ◽  
Shear Resistance ◽  
Stress Conditions ◽  
Rock Joints ◽  
Normal Stresses ◽  
Permafrost Rock ◽  
Limestone Sample

Abstract. Instability and failure of permafrost-affected rock slopes have significantly increased coincident to warming in the last decades. Most of the observed failures in permafrost-affected rock walls are likely triggered by the mechanical destabilisation of warming bedrock permafrost including effects in ice-filled joints. The failure of ice-filled rock joints has only been observed in a small number of experiments, often using concrete as a rock analogue. Here, we present a systematic study of the brittle shear failure of ice and rock-ice interfaces, simulating the accelerating phase of rock slope failure. For this, we performed 141 shear experiments with rock-ice-rock sandwich samples at constant strain rates provoking ice fracturing (10−3 s−1), under relevant stress conditions ranging from 100 to 800 kPa, i.e. 4–30 m rock overburden, and at temperatures from −10 to −0.5 °C, typical for recent rock slope failures in alpine permafrost. To create close to natural but reproducible conditions, limestone sample surfaces were ground to international rock mechanical standard roughness. Acoustic emission (AE) was successfully applied to describe the fracturing behaviour, anticipating rock-ice failure as all failures are predated by an AE hit increase with peaks immediately prior to failure. We demonstrate that both, the warming and unloading (i.e. reduced overburden) of ice-filled rock joints lead to a significant drop in shear resistance. With a temperature increase from −10 °C to −0.5 °C, the shear stress at failure reduces by 64–78 % for normal stresses of 100–400 kPa. At a given temperature, the shear resistance of rock-ice interfaces decreases with decreasing normal stress. This can lead to a self-enforced rock slope failure propagation: as soon as a first slab has detached, further slabs become unstable through progressive thermal propagation and possibly even faster by unloading. Here, we introduce a new Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion for ice-filled rock joints that is valid for joint surfaces which we assume similar for all rock types, and which applies to temperatures from −8 to −0.5 °C and normal stresses from 100 to 400 kPa. It contains a temperature-dependent friction and cohesion which decrease by 12 %/°C and 10 %/°C respectively due to warming and it applies to temperature and stress conditions of more than 90 % of the recently documented accelerating failure phases in permafrost rock walls.

scholarly journals Semi-automated regional classification of the style of activity of slow rock-slope deformations using PS InSAR and SqueeSAR velocity data

Landslides ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Crippa ◽  
Elena Valbuzzi ◽  
Paolo Frattini ◽  
Giovanni B. Crosta ◽  
Margherita C. Spreafico ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rock Slope ◽  
Progressive Failure ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Displacement Rate ◽  
Machine Learning Classification ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Alpine Environments

AbstractLarge slow rock-slope deformations, including deep-seated gravitational slope deformations and large landslides, are widespread in alpine environments. They develop over thousands of years by progressive failure, resulting in slow movements that impact infrastructures and can eventually evolve into catastrophic rockslides. A robust characterization of their style of activity is thus required in a risk management perspective. We combine an original inventory of slow rock-slope deformations with different PS-InSAR and SqueeSAR datasets to develop a novel, semi-automated approach to characterize and classify 208 slow rock-slope deformations in Lombardia (Italian Central Alps) based on their displacement rate, kinematics, heterogeneity and morphometric expression. Through a peak analysis of displacement rate distributions, we characterize the segmentation of mapped landslides and highlight the occurrence of nested sectors with differential activity and displacement rates. Combining 2D decomposition of InSAR velocity vectors and machine learning classification, we develop an automatic approach to characterize the kinematics of each landslide. Then, we sequentially combine principal component and K-medoids cluster analyses to identify groups of slow rock-slope deformations with consistent styles of activity. Our methodology is readily applicable to different landslide datasets and provides an objective and cost-effective support to land planning and the prioritization of local-scale studies aimed at granting safety and infrastructure integrity.

scholarly journals Stability Analysis of Jointed Rock Slope by Strength Reduction Technique considering Ubiquitous Joint Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ruili Lu ◽  
Wei Wei ◽  
Kaiwei Shang ◽  
Xiangyang Jing
Keyword(s):  
Rock Slope ◽  
Reduction Method ◽  
Domain Size ◽  
Jointed Rock ◽  
Strength Reduction ◽  
Hydropower Station ◽  
Strength Reduction Method ◽  
Vertical Side ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Jointed Rock Slope

In order to study the failure mechanism and assess the stability of the inlet slope of the outlet structure of Lianghekou Hydropower station, the strength reduction method considering the ubiquitous joint model is proposed. Firstly, two-dimension numerical models are built to investigate the influence of the dilation angle of ubiquitous joints, mesh discretization, and solution domain size on the slope stability. It is found that the factor of safety is insensitive to the dilation angle of ubiquitous joints and the solution domain size but sensitive to the mesh discretization when the number of elements less than a certain threshold. Then, a complex three-dimension numerical model is built to assess the stability of the inlet slope of the outlet structure of Lianghekou Hydropower station. During the strength reduction procedure, the progressive failure process and the final failure surface of the slope are obtained. Furthermore, the comparison of factors of safety obtained from strength reduction method and analytical solutions indicates that the effect of vertical side boundaries plays an important role in the stability of jointed rock slope, and the cohesive force is the main contribution to the resistant force of vertical side boundaries.

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