DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, LAHORE

MIN.E-415 Strata Control

B.Sc. Mining Engineering

Fall 2016

Assignment 3
LABWORK

1. A 10m wide bench in a 110m deep open pit is to be analyzed for stability. The local
bench slope is 70 degrees, and there are 12m between benches. Joints dipping at
35 degrees have been identified as being likely to cause planar failure. Through joint
mapping, it is found that joint persistence does not exceed 13m. Assume the
strength of the joints is c=0.9 t/m2 and φ = 32°.
a. What is the factor of safety of the bench?
b. Assuming all benches are equal, what is the overall pit slope angle? Comment
on the overall pit wall stability.
c. By plotting the factor of safety as a function of bench width, what is the
maximum bench width for a design F.S. of 1.0?
d. If the strength parameters are taken as random variables that are normally
distributed, compute the probability of failure of a bench, if the standard
deviations of c and φ are 0.3t/m2 and 4° respectively.
e. Comment on your choice of sampling method and number of samples.

2. A water table exists in slope having a mean water pressure in each of the
discontinuities equal to 35 kPa (joint 1) and 25 kPa (joint 2). A wedge volume of 110
m3 is specified, which is equivalent to a wedge height of 8 m. There is no tension
crack. The unit weight of rock is 25 kN/m 3. Determine the factor of safety for the
block using SWEDGE software.

Plane orientation
Plane Dip Dip Direction
J1 78 65
J2 49 185
Slope 15 120
Bench 70 135

Material Properties
Joint Set Cohesion (MPa) Friction angle Mean water pressure (kPa)
J1 1.4 35 2.8
J2 0.4 42 1.6

3. A symmetric earth embankment dam resting on a layered soil foundation with

ponded water of elevation 302 feet on the left side is shown in Figure. The left face
and right face of the dam is constructed using shell material. The pore water
pressure is modelled using two approaches. They are Finite Element seepage
analysis and piezometric line approximation. Two cases are studied in this
 DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, LAHORE

verification. Find the global critical slip surface and the critical slip surface tangent to
elevation 197 feet.
 Reduce the dimensions of slope by 75% and show results.
 Improve cohesion and friction angle by 20% and show results

Material k (ft/s) c’ (psf) φ’ (0) γ (pcf)

Outer Shell 1.67 x 10 -4 0 34 125
Clay Core 1.67 x 10 -8 100 26 122
Foundation 1.67 x 10 -7 0 24 123
Clay
Foundation 1.67 x 10 -5 0 32 127
Sand