Failure Mechanism of Anti-Dip Layered Soft Rock Slope under Rainfall and Excavation Conditions

Jun Jia, Xiangjun Pei, Gang Liu (), Guojun Cai, Xiaopeng Guo and Bo Hong
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Jun Jia: Key Laboratory for Geo-Hazard in Loess Area, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xi’an Center of China Geological Survey, Xi’an 710119, China
Xiangjun Pei: State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
Gang Liu: Key Laboratory for Geo-Hazard in Loess Area, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xi’an Center of China Geological Survey, Xi’an 710119, China
Guojun Cai: State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
Xiaopeng Guo: Key Laboratory for Geo-Hazard in Loess Area, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xi’an Center of China Geological Survey, Xi’an 710119, China
Bo Hong: Key Laboratory for Geo-Hazard in Loess Area, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xi’an Center of China Geological Survey, Xi’an 710119, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-21

Abstract: The phenomenon of toppling deformation and failure is common in slopes with anti-dip structures, especially in soft metamorphic rock slopes. This paper aims to explore the instability mechanism of anti-dip layered soft metamorphic rock landslides. Taking the slope of a mining area in the southern Qinling Mountains of China as a geological prototype, a large-scale centrifuge model test and a numerical simulation based on the combined finite and discrete element method (FDEM) were performed. The deformation and failure process, failure mode, and failure path of the slope under rainfall and excavation conditions were simulated. The results show that both the physical centrifuge model test and the new numerical model test can simulate the instability process of anti-dip layered soft metamorphic rock slopes, and the phenomena simulated by the two methods are also very close. Rainfall mainly weakens the mechanical properties of rock, while the excavation at the slope toe mainly changes the stress field distribution and provides space for slope deformation, both of which accelerate the instability of the anti-dip soft metamorphic rock slope. The failure process of an anti-dip layered soft rock slope can be described as follows: bending of the rock layer–tensile fracture along the layer–flexural toppling and cracking perpendicular to the rock layer–extension and penetration of the tensile fracture surface–sliding and instability of the slope.

Keywords: anti-dip; layered soft metamorphic rock; centrifuge model test; FDEM; slope instability; rainfall and excavation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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