Underdip Toppling Failure Mechanism: Case Study Retrospective Analysis and Its Most Determinant Parameters
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 19, Issue 6
Abstract
The underdip toppling failure (UTF) mechanism in rock slopes with a set of discontinuities is analyzed in this study. Various perspectives from the most relevant authors are examined to understand the behavior of this mechanism. The UTF mechanism in rock slopes is explained using field observations from a case study of a mica schist slope validated through a retrospective analysis. An engineering approach is presented to assess the quantitative and qualitative influences of the main parameters on the UTF mechanism based on a numerical method that uses continuous FEM code with Phase 2. The results show that the level of the water table (WT) is the most determinant parameter among the others considered, namely, the discontinuity strength, slope height, state of the natural stresses (K0), and discontinuity spacing. Finally, recommendations are provided to better understand the parameters that are more influential on the calculation of the factor of safety (FoS) in UTF scenarios.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate the financial support of the Soil Engineering Department of the Escuela Técnica de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the collaboration of Dr. Daniel del Olmo and Assistant Professor Antonio Soriano-Martínez for their help with the computational model. Special thanks to Professor Javier Moreno from the Experimental Centre of the Spanish Government (CEDEX) for his ideas on the discontinuity characterization in the FEM model.
References
Bovis, M. J. 1991. “Limits to common toppling: Discussion.” Can. Geotech. J. 28 (3): 463–464. https://doi.org/10.1139/t91-057.
Cruden, D. M. 1989. “Limits to common toppling.” Can. Geotech. J. 26 (4): 737–742. https://doi.org/10.1139/t89-085.
Cruden, D. M. 1991. “Limits to common toppling: Reply.” Can. Geotech. J. 28(3): 465. https://doi.org/10.1139/t91-058.
Cruden, D. M., X. Q. Hu, and Z. Lu. 1993. “Rock topples in the highway cut west of Clairvaux Creek, Jasper, Alberta.” Can. Geotech. J. 30 (6): 1016–1023. https://doi.org/10.1139/t93-098.
Dawson, E. M., W. H. Roth, and A. Drescher. 1999. “Slope stability analysis by strength reduction.” Géotechnique 49 (6): 835–840. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1999.49.6.835.
de Freitas, M. H., and R. J. Watters. 1973. “Some field examples of toppling failure.” Géotechnique 23 (4): 495–514. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1973.23.4.495.
Diederichs, M. S., M. Lato, R. Hammah, and P. Quinn. 2007. “Shear strength reduction (SSR) approach for slope stability analyses.” In Rock mechanics: Meeting society’s challenges and demands, 319–327. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Franklin, J. A., and O. Hungr. 1978. “Rock stresses in Canada: Their relevance to engineering projects.” Rock Mech. (S6): 25–46.
Geological Survey of Spain. 1973. MAGNA 50–Geological map of Spain. Sheet 1056. [In Spanish.] Madrid, Spain: Geological Survey of Spain.
Goodman, R. 1989. Introduction to rock mechanics. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Goodman, R., and J. Bray. 1976. “Toppling of rock slopes.” In Vol. 2 of Proc., ASCE Specialty Conf. on Rock Engineering for Foundations and Slopes, 201–234. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Hammah, R. E., T. Yacoub, B. Corkum, F. Wibowo, and J. H. Curran. 2007. “Analysis of blocky rock slopes with finite element shear strength reduction analysis.” In Proc., 1st Canada–US Rock Mechanics Symp. Alexandria, VA: American Rock Mechanics Association.
Hammah, R. E., T. Yacoub, B. Corkum, and J. H. Curran. 2008. “The practical modelling of discontinuous rock masses with finite element analysis.” In Proc., 42nd US Rock Mechanics Symp. and 2nd US–Canada Rock Mechanics Symp. Alexandria, VA: American Rock Mechanics Association.
Hammah, R. E., T. Yacoub, and J. H. Curran. 2009. “Variation of failure mechanisms of slopes in jointed rock masses with changing scale.” In Proc., 3rd CANUS Rock Mechanics Symp., edited by M. S. Diederichs and G. Grasselli. Alexandria, VA: American Rock Mechanics Association.
Hoek, E. 2007. “Rock mass properties.” Practical rock engineering. North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Evert Hoek Consulting Engineer Inc.
Lorig, L., and P. Varona. 2004. “Numerical analysis.” In Rock slope engineering, 218–244. London: Spon Press.
Malkowski, P. 2015. “Behaviour of joints in sandstones during the shear test.” Acta Geodyn. Geomater. 12 (4): 399–410.
Marinos, P., V. Marinos, and E. Hoek. 2007. “Geological strength index (GSI). A characterization tool for assessing engineering properties for rock masses.” In Underground works under special conditions, edited by M. Romana, A. Perucho, and C. Olalla, 13–21. Lisbon: Taylor & Francis.
Matheson, G. D. 1983. Rock stability assessment in preliminary site investigations–Graphical methods. Rep. 1039. Crownthorne, UK: Transport and Road Research Laboratory.
Maurenbrecher, P. M., and H. R. G. K. Hack. 2007. “Toppling mechanism: Resolving the question of alignment of slope and discontinuities.” In Vol. 1 of Proc., 11th Congress of the Int. Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM); The second half century of rock mechanics, edited by L. Ribeiro E Sousa, C. Olalla, and N. F. Grossmann, 725–728. Leiden, Netherlands: Balkema.
Puell Marín, F. 2009. “Underdip toppling. Caso de studio” [Underdip toppling: Case Study]. In Proc., VII Simposio Nacional sobre Taludes y Laderas Inestables. Barcelona, Spain: International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering.
Sagaseta, C. 1986. “On the modes of instability of a rigid block on an inclined plane.” Rock Mech. Rock Eng. 19 (4): 261–266. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01039998.
Serrano, A., and C. Olalla. 1994. “Ultimate bearing capacity of rock masses.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Geomech. Abstr. 31 (2): 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-9062(94)92799-5.
Sjöberg, J. 2001. “Failure mechanisms for high slopes in hard rock.” In Slope stability in surface mining, edited by W. A. Hustrulid, 71–80. Littleton, CO: Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration.
Soriano, A., M. Valderrama, and J. González. 2005. “A solution for toppling.” In Proc., 16th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press.
Stead, D., and J. Coggan. 2012. “Numerical modeling of rock slope instability.” Landslides: Types, mechanisms and modeling, edited by J. J. Clague and D. Stead, 144–158. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wyllie, D. C., and C. W. Mah. 2004. “Rock strength properties and their measurement.” In Rock slope engineering, 74–108. London: Spon Press.
Zhang, G., Y. Zhao, and X. Peng. 2010. “Simulation of toppling failure or rock slope by numerical manifold method.” Int. J. Comput. Methods 7 (1): 167–189. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219876210002118.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 19 • Issue 6 • June 2019
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 10, 2017
Accepted: Nov 19, 2018
Published online: Mar 19, 2019
Published in print: Jun 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Aug 19, 2019
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.