Coupled effect of joint orientation and blast-induced damage zone on the stability of jointed rock slopes

Som Nath (), Ashok Kr Singh, Harsh Kr Verma, Shubham Chaudhary and Nachiketa Rai
Additional contact information
Som Nath: Indian Institute of Technology
Ashok Kr Singh: CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research
Harsh Kr Verma: CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research
Shubham Chaudhary: CSIR-Central Building Research Institute
Nachiketa Rai: Indian Institute of Technology

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2025, vol. 121, issue 6, No 32, 7173-7197

Abstract: Abstract The present study examines and discusses the coupled effect of Blast-Induced Damage Zones (BIDZ) and joint orientation on the stability of vulnerable road cut slopes along the strategic National Highway-5 in Himachal Pradesh, India by using the continuum numerical modelling approach. In this study, the field conditions of BIDZ in jointed rock slopes have been presented and its impact on failure behaviour has been analysed considering cases of daylight and anti-dip joint orientations. Subsequently, Low-Dip (LD) and High-Dip (HD) in the case of daylighted joints and Anti-Dip (AD) along with combinations of LD, HD and AD were considered to investigate the effect of BIDZ. Additionally, the Joint Persistence Factor was also taken into account to investigate the effect of the areal extent of joint due to blasting within BIDZ. The outcomes of this work highlight that anti-dip (AD) joints show low deformation and shear strain changes indicating increased stability even in the presence of blast disturbance whereas Low-Dip (LD) and High-Dip (HD) joints show a progressive decline in critical strength reduction factor from low-dip to high dip and at same time increase in total displacement and maximum shear strain. The patterns in failure behaviour are observed to be highly influenced by blast damage zones coupled with joint orientation and its persistence factor. The high joint persistence factor significantly affects the areal extent of rock mass deformation and failure patterns, particularly in LD joint conditions. These results provide important new information derived from investigations and modelling on blast damage zones in rock slopes, and they have significant consequences in the planning and maintenance of transportation infrastructure in hilly areas. It is crucial to use these findings while designing appropriate stabilization measures in order to ensure the stability of road cut slopes, thereby the safety of transport infrastructure in difficult geological environments.

Keywords: Blast disturbance factor; Joint persistence factor; FEM; National highway; Himalaya (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-024-07080-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:121:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s11069-024-07080-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-024-07080-4

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().