Title: Toppling of the jointed rock slope with counter-tilted weak planes influenced by the response to local earthquakes

Authors: Victor Mwango Bowa; Yuanyou Xia; Minjia Yan; Eugie Kabwe

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, 430070, Wuhan, China ' Department of Civil Engineering, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, 430070, Wuhan, China ' Department of Civil Engineering, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, 430070, Wuhan, China ' Department of Mining Engineering, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Abstract: In the current numerical models for evaluating block toppling of the jointed rock slopes under dynamic conditions, a single weak plane angle is assumed, running from the top surface and daylighting on the slope's toe. The potential source of shortfalls in the current numerical models are related to the assumptions on the distributions of the weak planes in the jointed rock slope. In this article, the relationships between earthquake event and toppling failure of the jointed rock slopes with varying counter-tilted weak plane angles have been studied using 3DEC software. The study results indicate that the counter-tilted weak planes play a major role in adjusting the earthquake ground motions thereby influencing the toppling displacement response behaviours, failure mechanisms and the rate of displacements for the jointed rock slope. The study could provide precise applications for predictive scenarios of dynamic toppling of the jointed rock slopes with counter-tilted weak planes.

Keywords: toppling; earthquake response; peak acceleration propagations; discrete element method; DEM; failure mode.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2018.097427

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2018 Vol.9 No.4, pp.302 - 320

Received: 05 Jun 2018
Accepted: 25 Jul 2018
Published online: 21 Jan 2019 *

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