LANDSLIDES: INVESTIGATION AND MITIGATION. CHAPTER 15 - ROCK SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSIS

Abstract

This chapter addresses rock slope stability analysis. For all but very weak rock materials, the analysis of rock slope stability is fundamentally a two-part process. The first step is to analyze the structural fabric of the site to determine if the orientation of the discontinuities could result in instability of the slope under construction. This determination is usually accomplished by means of stereographic analysis of the structural fabric and is often referred to as kinematic analysis. Once it is determined that a kinematically possible failure mode is present, the second step requires a limit-equilibrium stability analysis to compare the forces resisting failure with the forces causing failure. The ratio between these two sets of forces is termed the factor of safety. Following a discussion of the stereographic analysis of structural fabric, the following types of rock slope failures are examined: planar failures; wedge failures; toppling failures; circular failures; column buckling failure; and bilinear wedge failure. The remainder of this chapter deals with the issue of slope design under dynamic loading and with specialized analytical techniques based on probabilistic and distinct-element methods.