Mechanism on Progressive Failure of a Faulted Rock Slope Due to Slip-Weakening

Slip-weakening is one of the characteristics of geological materials under certain loadings. Non-uniform rock structure may exist in the vicinity of the slip surface for a rock slope. Some portion of the slip surface may be penetrated but the other not. For the latter case, the crack or the fault surface will undergo shear deformation before it becomes a successive surface under a certain loading. As the slipped portion advances,slip-weakening occurs over a distance behind the crack tip. In the weakening zone, the shear strength will decrease from its peak value to residual friction level. The stress will redistribute along the surface of crack and in the weakening zone. Thus the changed local stress concentration leads the crack to extend and the ratio of penetration of the slip surface to increase. From the view of large-scale for the whole slip surface, the shear strength will decrease due to the damage of interior rock structure, and the faulted rock behaves as a softening material. Such a kind of mechanism performs in a large number of practical landslides in the zones experienced strong earthquakes. It should be noted that the mechanism mentioned above is different from that of the breakage of structural clay,in which the geological material is regarded as a medium containing structural lumps and structural bands. In this paper, the softening behavior of a faulted rock should be regarded as a comprehensive result of the whole complicated process including slip-weakening, redistribution of stress, extension of crack tip, and the penetration of the slip surface. This process is accompanied by progressive failure and abrupt structural damage. The size of slip-weakening zone is related to the undergoing strain. Once the relative slide is initiated (local or integrated), the effect of slip-weakening will behave in a certain length behind the crack tip until the formation of the whole slip surface.

Slope Stability Analysis Using Anisotropic and Nonlinear Failure Criteria

The shear strength of soils or rocks developed in a landslide usually exhibits anisotropic and nonlinear behavior. The process of sedimentation and subsequent consolidation can cause anisotropy of sedimentary soils or rocks, for instance. Nonlinearity of failure envelope could be attributed to "interlocking" or "dilatancy" of the material, which is generally dependent upon the stress level. An analytical method considering both anisotropy and nonlinearity of the failure envelops of soil and rocks is presented in the paper. The nonlinearfailure envelopes can be determined from routine triaxial tests. A spreadsheet program, which uses the Janbu's Generalized Procedure of Slice and incorporates anisotropic, illustrates the implementation of the approach and nonlinearfailure envelops. In the analysis, an equivalent Mohr-Coulomb linear failure criterion is obtained by drawing a tangent to the nonlinear envelope of an anisotropic soil at an appropriate stress level. An illustrative example is presented to show the feasibility and numerical efficiency of the method.

Numerical Analysis of Rainfall Infiltration in the Slope with a Fracture

With the finite volume method, a 2D numerical model for seepage in unsaturated soil has been established to study the rainfall infiltration in the fractured slope.The result shows that more rain may infiltrate into the slope due to existing fracture and then the pore pressure rises correspondingly. Very probably, it is one of the crucial factors accounting for slope failure. Furthermore a preliminary study has been conducted to investigate the influence of various fracture and rainfall factors such as the depth, width and location of a crack, surface condition, rainfall intensity and duration. Pore pressure and water volumetric content during the transient seepage are carefully examined to reveal the intrinsic mechanism.

Effect of Rock Mass Structure and Block Size on the Slope Stability-Physical Modeling and Discrete Element Simulation

This paper studies the stability of jointed rock slopes by using our improved three-dimensional discrete element methods (DEM) and physical modeling. Results show that the DEM can simulate all failure modes of rock slopes with different joint configurations. The stress in each rock block is not homogeneous and blocks rotate in failure development. Failure modes depend on the configuration of joints. Toppling failure is observed for the slope with straight joints and sliding failure is observed for the slope with staged joints. The DEM results are also compared with those of limit equilibrium method (LEM). Without considering the joints in rock masses, the LEM predicts much higher factor of safety than physical modeling and DEM. The failure mode and factor of safety predicted by the DEM are in good agreement with laboratory tests for any jointed rock slope.

三峡永久船闸高边坡开挖三维离散元数值模拟:3-D Simulation of the Excavation of High Steep Slope of Three-Gorges Permanent Lock by Distinct Element Method

采用面一面接触的三维离散元刚性块体模型,从实测节理面中取出其中的三组,按照其倾向、倾角和节理间距将三峡永久船闸未开挖的区域划分为10~5个离散单元,通过施加力边界条件,给出了与实测初始地应力场接近的数值模拟结果；然后,分4步模拟了永久船闸的开挖过程。计算结果表明：开挖过程会引起节理面出现张开趋势,个别岩体还会沿着节理面滑移。岩体位移的不对称现象较为自然地说明了由节理引起的岩体各向异性特征。

Effect of Microtopography, Slope Length and Gradient, and Vegetative Cover on Overland Flow Through Simulation

Overland flow on a hillslope is significantly influenced by its microtopography, slope length and gradient, and vegetative cover. A 1D kinematic wave model in conjunction with a revised form of the Green-Ampt infiltration equation was employed to evaluate the effect of these surface conditions. The effect of these conditions was treated through the resistance parameter in the kinematic wave model. The resistance in this paper was considered to be made up of grain resistance, form resistance, and wave resistance. It was found that irregular slopes with microtopography eroded more easily than did regular slopes. The effect of the slope gradient on flow velocity and flow shear stress could be negative or positive. With increasing slope gradient, the flow velocity and shear stress first increased to a peak value, then decreased again, suggesting that there exists a critical slope gradient for flow velocity and shear stress. The vegetative cover was found to protect soil from erosion primarily by enhancing erosion-resisting capacity rather than by decreasing the eroding capability of overland flow.

A Dynamic Comprehensive Method for Landslide Control

A slope failure is developed due to progressive external loads and deteriorations of slope geomaterials, thus forming a progressive and dynamic development and occurrence of landslides. Site geological properties and other active factors such as hydrodynamic load and human activities are complex and usually unknown, thus this dynamic development and occurrence of landslides can only be understood through the progressive accumulation of knowledge on the landslides. For such a progressive process, this paper proposes a dynamic comprehensive control method for landslide control. This control method takes full advantage of updated monitoring data and site investigations of landslides, and emphasizes the implementation of possible measures for landslide control at reasonable stages and in different groups. These measures are to prevent the occurrence of a landslide disaster. As a case study, a landslide project at the Panluo open-pit iron mine is analyzed to illustrate this dynamic comprehensive control method.

Experimental study on pore pressure in rock-soil slope during reservoir water level fluctuation

A test system was developed for measuring the pore pressure in porous media, and a new model was devised for the pore pressure testing in both saturated and unsaturated rock-soil. Laboratory experiments were carried out to determine the pore pressure during water level fluctuation. The variations of transient pore pressure vs. time at different locations of the simulated rock-soil system were acquired and processed, and meanwhile the deformation and failure of the model are observed. The experiment results show that whether the porous media are saturated or not, the transient pore pressure is mainly dependent on the water level fluctuation, and coupled with the variation of the stress field.

An Extension of 2D Janbu’s Generalized Procedure of Slices for 3D Slope Stability Analysis II—Numerical Method and Applications

This paper provides a numerical approach on achieving the limit equilibrium method for 3D slope stability analysis proposed in the theoretical part of the previous paper. Some programming techniques are presented to ensure the maneuverability of the method. Three examples are introduced to illustrate the use of this method. The results are given in detail such as the local factor of safety and local potential sliding direction for a slope. As the method is an extension of 2D Janbu's generalized procedure of slices (GPS), the results obtained by GPS for the longitudinal sections of a slope are also given for comparison with the 3D results. A practical landslide in Yunyang, the Three Gorges, of China, is also analyzed by the present method. Moreover, the proposed method has the advantages and disadvantages of GPS. The problem frequently encountered in calculation process is still about the convergency, especially in analyzing the stability of a cutting corner. Some advice on discretization is given to ensure convergence when the present method is used. However, the problem about convergency still needs to be further explored based on the rigorous theoretical background.

Numerical Analysis on Intermittent Flow in a Longitudinal Section of Bingham Fluid along a Slope

The transition process of intermittent flow in a longitudinal section of Bingham fluid from initial distribution to fully developed state was numerically investigated in this paper. The influences of slope dimensionless runoff Q* and viscosity μ0* on the dimensionless surge speed U* were also presented in a wide range of parameters. By one typical example, the intermittent flow possessed wave characteristics and showed a supercritical flow conformation for a fully developed flow. The distributions of gravity and bed drag along the flow path and the velocity distribution of flow field were also analyzed.

Influences of slope gradient on soil erosion

The main factors influencing soil erosion include the net rain excess, the water depth, the velocity, the shear stress of overland flows, and the erosion-resisting capacity of soil. The laws of these factors varying with the slope gradient were investigated by using the kinematic wave theory. Furthermore, the critical slope gradient of erosion was driven. The analysis shows that the critical slope gradient of soil erosion is dependent on grain size, soil bulk density, surface roughness, runoff length, net rain excess, and the friction coefficient of soil, etc. The critical slope gradient has been estimated theoretically with its range between 41.5 degrees similar to 50 degrees.

Relationships Between Initial Unloading Slope, Contact Depth, and Mechanical Properties for Conical Indentation in Linear Viscoelastic Solids

Using analytical and finite element modeling, we examine the relationships between initial unloading slope, contact depth, and mechanical properties for spherical indentation in viscoelastic solids with either displacement or load as the independent variable. We then investigate whether the Oliver-Pharr method for determining the contact depth and contact radius, originally proposed for indentation in elastic and elastic-plastic solids, is applicable to spherical indentation in viscoelastic solids. Finally, the analytical and numerical results are used to answer questions raised in recent literature about measuring viscoelastic properties from instrumented spherical indentation experiments.

Water Content Distribution in the Surface Layer of Maoping Slope

The water content distribution in the surface layer of Maoping slope has been studied by testing the water content at 31 control sites. The water content profiles at these sites have also been determined. The water content distributions at different segments have been obtained by using the Kriging method of geostatistics. By comparing the water content distributions with the landform of the slope, it was shown that the water content is closely dependent on the landform of the slope. The water content distribution in the surface layer provided a fundamental basis for landslide predication and treatment.

Mechanism Analysis of Landslide of a Layered Slope Induced by Drawdown of Water Level

The frequent drawdown of water level of Yangtze River will greatly influence the stability of the widely existing slopes in the Three Gorges reservoir zone, especially those layered ones. Apart from the fluctuating speed of water level, the different geological materials will also play important roles in the failure of slopes. Thus, it must be first to study the mechanism of such a landslide caused by drawdown of water level.A new experimental setup is designed to study the performance of a layered slope under the drawdown of water level. The pattern of landslide of a layered slope induced by drawdown of water level has been explored by means of simulating experiments. The influence of fluctuating speed of water level on the stability of the layered slope is probed,especially the whole process of deformation and development of landslide of the slope versus time. The experimental results show that the slope is stable during the water level rising, and the sliding body occurs in the upper layer of the slope under a certain drawdown speed of water level. In the process of slope failure, some new small sliding body will develop on the main sliding body, and the result is that they speed up the disassembly of the whole slope.Based on the simulating experiment on landslide of a layered slope induced by drawdown of water level, the stress and displacement field of the slope are calculated.The seepage velocity, the pore water pressure, and the gradient of pore water head are also calculated for the whole process of drawdown of water level. The computing results are in good agreement with the experimental results. Accordingly, the mechanism of deformation and landslide of the layered slope induced by drawdown of water level is analyzed. It may provide basis for treating this kind of layered slopes in practical engineering.