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Investigating Toppling Failure Mechanism of Anti-dip Layered Slope due to Excavation by Physical Modelling

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Abstract

The failure mechanism of anti-dip layered slopes is essentially different from that of dip layered slopes. Therefore, it is important to investigate the failure mechanism of anti-dip slopes due to excavations. In this study, slope instability induced by mining excavation at the Changshanhao open-pit mine in Neimenggu province, China, was used as a case study. Based on the similarity ratio theory, a physical model was built to investigate the failure mechanism of the anti-dip layered slope under excavation. The physical model was monitored by various monitoring equipment including static strain data acquisition equipment, infrared thermal camera, and digital speckle displacement field measurement equipment. The evolution characteristics of the multi-physics fields including displacement field, strain field and temperature field of the physical model during the excavation were comprehensively obtained. According to the deformation characteristics of the anti-dip layered slope during excavation test, the failure mechanism can be divided into four stages: initial compression stage, crack generation stage, crack propagation stage and formation of sliding surface stage. The deformation characteristics of the slope at each stage were analyzed and compared with those of the anti-dip slope in the field. The comparison verified the rationality and accuracy of the physical model experiment, and provided a deeper understanding of the failure mechanism of anti-dip layered slope under excavation through the comprehensive monitoring data. The results of this work can be used as a reference for the follow-up reinforcement and treatment of similar anti-dip layered slopes.

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Abbreviations

Cl and Cr :

Geometric similarity ratio and unit weight similarity ratio, respectively

\({C}_{\sigma }, {C}_{E}, {C}_{c}, {C}_{\delta }, {C}_{\nu }, {C}_{\varepsilon }\) and \({C}_{\varphi }\) :

Similarity constants for stress, deformation modulus, cohesion, displacement, Poisson’s ratio, strain and internal friction angle, respectively

c and φ :

Cohesion and internal friction angle, respectively

\({\varepsilon }_{max}\) :

Maximum principal strain

\({\varepsilon }_{x}\), \({\varepsilon }_{u}\) and \({\varepsilon }_{y}\) :

Measured strains in X, U and Y directions, respectively

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Project of Zhejiang Province (Grant No: 2019C03104) and the Key Special Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41941018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Chun Zhu

  2. State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, China

    Chun Zhu, Manchao He, Xuebin Cui & Zhigang Tao

  3. School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

    Chun Zhu & Murat Karakus

  4. College of Construction Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130026, China

    Chun Zhu

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  1. Chun Zhu
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  2. Manchao He
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  3. Murat Karakus
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  4. Xuebin Cui
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  5. Zhigang Tao
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Correspondence to Zhigang Tao.

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The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. This manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described is original research that has not been published previously.

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Zhu, C., He, M., Karakus, M. et al. Investigating Toppling Failure Mechanism of Anti-dip Layered Slope due to Excavation by Physical Modelling. Rock Mech Rock Eng 53, 5029–5050 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02207-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02207-y

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