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Stability Guntur,
Analysis of aINDIA
Jointed Rock Slope in Himalayas
G. Madhavi Latha
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IISc, Bangalore–560 012, India. E-mail: madhavi@civil.iisc.ernet.in
ABSTRACT: This paper presents static and seismic slope stability analysis of the right abutment slope of a railway bridge
proposed at about 350 m above the ground level, crossing a river and connecting two huge hillocks in the Himalayas, India.
The rock slope is composed of highly jointed rock mass and the joint spacing and orientation are varying at different
locations. Static, pseudo static and dynamic analyses of the slope are carried out numerically using program FLAC. The
results obtained from all these analyses confirmed the global stability of the slope as the factors of safety against slope failure
obtained from static and pseudo static analyses are adequate and the displacements observed from dynamic analyses are
within the permissible limits. Kinematics of the slope at different pier locations is also checked using stereographic
projections and recommendations to avoid wedge failures are presented.
926
Stability Analysis of a Jointed Rock Slope in Himalayas
Fig. 2: Photograph Showing the Proposed Bridge Site Table 4: Details of the Footing Pressures
Property P50 P60 P70 P80 P90
The rocks present at the bridge site are heavily jointed. The
subsurface at the extent of the bridge site considered for slope Chainage 51.065 51.13 51.1865 51.2265 51.2765
stability analysis essentially consists of Dolomitic limestone (km)
with different degrees of weathering and fracturing. The main Original 747.829 807.421 838.657 841.476 832.750
discontinuities at the site are one sub-horizontal foliation joint ground level
dipping about 20–30 degrees in North-East (NE) direction and (m)
two sub-vertical joints. Figure 3 shows the rock mass exposed at Ground level 724 784 832 832 832
the bridge site. The figure also depicts the intensity and spacing after
of the prevailing joint sets at the bridge site. The summary of benching (m)
structural features present in the area is given in Table 1. Depth of 3 3 3 3 7
Properties of intact rocks obtained through laboratory testing foundation
of cores collected from boreholes at the site are given in (m)
Table 2. Table 3 presents the rock mass properties used in the Foundation 28 × 36 11 × 9.5 11 × 6.5 11 × 6.5 11 × 6.5
analysis. The pier loads applied at their corresponding locations size (m × m)
are given in Table 4.
Footing 374.86 588.00 409.00 415.00 317.00
Pressure
Table 1: Structural Features at the Site (kPa)
Feature Strike Dip Dip direction
Railway line N120°–N 300° – – The original slope has to be cut and benches need to be
alignment provided to facilitate the construction of foundations along
the slope. The outline of benching profile selected for the
Foliation joint N 140°–N 320° 27° N 50° right abutment is shown in Figure 4.
Sub-vertical N 150°–N 330° 65° N 240° It is impossible to incorporate and model all the dis-
joint -1
continuities in large slope in a numerical model as the joint
Sub-vertical N 75°–N 255° 80° N 165° spacing is very less (varying between 5 mm to 10 mm).
joint -2 Hence the slope is represented by an equivalent continuum in
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Stability Analysis of a Jointed Rock Slope in Himalayas
which the effect of discontinuities has been considered by applied to all the zones. Stability analysis is carried out using
reducing the properties and strength of intact rock to those of Hoek-Brown failure criterion in FLAC. FLAC calculates the
the rock mass. Numerical modelling presented in the paper is factor of safety automatically using the shear strength reduction
done using the equivalent continuum approach in FLAC technique through bracketing (Matsui and San 1992). In this
along with the generalized Hoek-Brown failure criterion. technique, the values of shear strength parameters ‘c’ and ‘φ‘
are updated in every trial until the difference between lower
and upper brackets is minimal according to the following
equations.
1
ctrial = ×c (1)
Ftrial
1
φ trial = tan −1 tan φ (2)
Ftrial
The value of ‘Ftrial’ at which slope will have instability i.e.
failure is calculated by FLAC using the bracketing technique.
Initially upper and lower brackets are established. The initial
lower bracket is any ‘Ftrial’ for which a simulation converges.
Fig. 3: Rock Mass Exposed at the Bridge Site The initial upper bracket is any ‘Ftrial’ for which the simulation
does not converge. Next, a point midway between the upper
and lower brackets is tested. If the simulation converges,
860
P70,
RL=838.657
P80,
RL=841.476
P90,
RL=832.750
lower bracket is replaced by this new value. If the simulation
840 does not converge, the upper bracket is replaced. The process
820
P60,
RL=807.424 is repeated until the difference between the upper and lower
existing
brackets is less than a specific tolerance.
800 profile
Elevation in meters
51186.5 51226.5
51276.5 The analysis is carried out with and without pier loads.
780
P50,
RL=747.829
Figure 5 shows the finite difference grid generated in FLAC
760 for using in the stability calculations. The results obtained
51130
740
from the stability analysis on the cut profile are shown in
Profile3 Figure 6 in the form of FOS (Factor of Safety) plot. The
720 Profile 2
value of FOS obtained from the static analysis is 1.88 which
Profile 1
700
means that the slope is globally stable. Stability analysis was
51065
also carried out on cut profile without pier loads and it was
680
51000 51050 51100 51150 51200 51250 51300 noticed that the value of factor of safety is not altered greatly
Chainage in meters
with the pier loads, showing that the effect of pier loads is
Fig. 4: Profile Selected for the Stability Analysis insignificant on the overall stability of the slope. The reason
for this is that the magnitude of the pier loads is very less
when compared to the overall weight of the slope.
3. STATIC SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSIS
The slope is simulated using FLAC version 5.0 developed by
Itasca consulting group (Itasca 1995). FLAC is a widely used
commercial, explicit finite difference code for applications in
soils and rocks. It is impossible to incorporate and model all
the discontinuities in large slope in a numerical model as the
joint spacing is very less (varying between 5 mm to 10 mm).
Hence the slope is represented by an equivalent continuum in
which the effect of discontinuities has been considered by
reducing the properties and strength of intact rock to those of
the rock mass. The slope is analysed for plane strain condition in
small strain mode. A relatively finer discretization of 100 ×
80 grid size is chosen for modelling the slope. At the base of
the model boundary, both horizontal (x) and vertical (y)
displacements are arrested by fixing the nodes. Along left and
right of the boundary horizontal displacements are arrested.
Initial stresses of magnitude s xx = s yy = s zz = 8 MPa are Fig. 5: FLAC Grid Used for the Stability Analyses
928
Stability Analysis of a Jointed Rock Slope in Himalayas
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Stability Analysis of a Jointed Rock Slope in Himalayas
The minimum FOS required for rock slopes considering the The deformed shape of the slope after the complete dynamic
earthquake loads is 1.2. But the factor of safety obtained event is shown in Figure 10. It can be noted from the figure
from pseudo-static analysis considering both horizontal and that a maximum displacement of 60.8 mm is observed near
vertical loads is falling below the required FOS value. However the toe. This displacement is the accumulated permanent
it is noteworthy to mention that the pseudo-static analysis is a displacement due to earthquake. Figure also depicts that the
highly conservative method because it is performed with displacements are more near the toe of the slope. Figure 11
continually applied seismic forces in horizontal and vertical shows the accumulated shear strain contours after the
directions, which is not realistic. For this analysis, as FOS dynamic event. The maximum strains are concentrated near
value of 1.0 is acceptable as per NEHRP guidelines for land the toe and the rest of the slope has zero strain.
sliding hazards. Hence the slope can be considered as
globally stable under seismic loading conditions as well.
0.3
Typical variation of horizontal and vertical displacements
0.2 with time at various points along the face of the slope during
the earthquake is shown in Figures 12 and 13. It was observed
Acceleration (g)
0.1
that the maximum displacements are occurring at 5.9 sec after
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
the initiation of the event, corresponding to the PHA (Peak
-0.1
Horizontal Acceleration) as shown in Figure 9. Figure 14
shows the horizontal displacement at the end of the dynamic
-0.2
event measured along the slope from toe to the crest. It can
-0.3 be seen that the displacement is maximum at the toe and it is
Time (s)
slowly diminishing and hitting ‘0’ at a distance of 150 m
Fig. 9: Corrected Transverse Component of Acceleration from the toe. After 150 m, a constant permanent displacement of
Time History of Uttarkashi Earthquake, Oct 20, 1991 02:53 IST 5 mm is observed along the slope.
930
Stability Analysis of a Jointed Rock Slope in Himalayas
60
Horizontal displacement (mm)
50
40
10
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Fig. 14: Horizontal Displacement along the Slope Face after Fig. 15: Wedge Failure Observed in Exploratory Drift at P50
the Dynamic Event
It is observed that the friction angle reported from the
laboratory tests is very low (about 20°). However, increase in
6. WEDGE FAILURE ANALYSIS
the value of friction angle will not arrest the wedge failures
In the earlier sections of this paper, global stability of the as it could be seen from the stereographic plots that the line
slope is examined through static and pseudo static slope of intersection of joints in the crescent is close to the slope
931
Stability Analysis of a Jointed Rock Slope in Himalayas
rather than the friction cone. Hence to avoid the wedge Crosta, G.B., Hungs, O., Sosio, R. and Frattini, P. (2007).
failures at the above mentioned locations (Valley, P50 and “Dynamic Analysis of the Thurwieser Rock Avalanche”,
P60), the slope needs to be flattened. By plotting the Italian Alps, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 9, 1–2.
stereographs for slope angle of 45°, it was observed that the Cundall, P.A. (1980). “UDEC—a Generalized Distinct
wedge failure is still possible at P60. By trial, it was Element Program for Modelling Jointed Rock”, Rept
observed that the maximum permissible value for slope is PCAR-I-80, Peter Cundall Associates Report, European
43° to avoid wedge failures at all the locations and the same Research Office, U.S. Army.
is recommended to avoid wedge failures. Goodman, R.E. (2000). Introduction to Rock Mechanics,
John Wiley & Sons.
Hatzor, Y.H., Arzi, A.A., Zaslavsky, Y. and Shapira, A.
7. CONCLUSIONS
(2004). “Dynamic Stability Analysis of Jointed Rock
A case study of large slope in Himalayan region of India is Slopes Using the DDA Method”, International Journal of
taken up in this paper and numerical analysis of the slope is Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 4, 813–832.
carried out using the equivalent continuum approach. The Itasca (1995). FLAC Version 5.0 User’s Manuals,
slope is analyzed for stability under static and seismic loading Minnesota, USA.
conditions. Calculation of factor of safety for the slope in Liu, Y., Li, H.B., Zhao, J, Li, J.R. and Zhou, Q.C. (2004).
static and pseudo-static conditions confirmed the global stability “UDEC Simulation for Dynamic Response of a Rock
of the slope in static and pseudo static conditions. Dynamic Slope Subject to Explosions”, Proceedings of SINOROCK
stability analysis for the maximum credible earthquake for the Symposium, CD-ROM, Paper 2B 23, International Journal
area showed that the displacements are well within the of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 41(3), 1–6.
permissible limits. Probability of wedge failure is assessed Matsui, T and San, K.C. (1992). “Finite Element Slope Stability
through kinematic analysis of the slope by drawing stereo- Analysis by Shear Strength Reduction Technique”,
graphic projections of joint planes prevailing in the bridge Journal of Soils and Foundations, 32(1), 59–70.
site and the slope. The kinematic analysis revealed the Mononobe, N. and Matsuo, H. (1929). “On the Determination
possibility of wedge failure at certain locations which of Earth Pressures During Earthquakes”, Proceedings of
necessitated the flattening of the slope. World Engineering Conference, 9, 176.
Okabe, S. (1926). “General Theory of Earth Pressure”, Journal
of Japanese Society of Civil Engineers, Tokyo, 12(1), 311.
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