Stability Analysis of A Railway Trench

By Using Stereographical Projection

Seyed Vahid Alavi Nezhad Khaili Abad
Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia,81310 UTM Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Corresponding Author, e-mail: v_alavi_59@yahoo.com

Edy Tonnizam Mohamad

Associate Professor (Dr.), Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia,81310 UTM Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Danial Jahed Armaghani

Ph.D Student, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,81310
UTM Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Roohollah Kalatehjari
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia,81310 UTM Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

ABSTRACT
An important step in designing engineering structures in rocky areas is evaluation the stability
of rock slopes. Kinematic analysis as a purely geometric method is able to determine the
possible modes of failure in jointed rock slopes. The required geological study is performed
usually by utilizing walk over method as well as discontinuity surveys. This paper describes
the stability assessment of a railway trench by analysis of the geological structure using
stereographic projection technique. The studied trench is located at an entrance of a railway
tunnel near Veresk in North of Iran. A scanline method was carried out to record the properties
of discontinuities of the rock mass. Then after, daylight envelopes of stereographic projections
were used to recognize the modes of failure for each major joint set in the rock exposure. A
joint set was found in daylight envelope of toppling failure, while another joint set was defined
to cause a planar failure. As a result, it was concluded that there are probabilities of both
toppling, and planar failures along the trench face. Finally, some recommendations were
advised in designing a supporting system with the help of observation and result of
stereographic plot technique.

KEYWORDS: Slope stability analysis, Kinematic analysis, Railway trench, Rock

slope, Stereographic projection.

INTRODUCTION
Evaluation of the rock slope stability is a classic problem for geotechnical engineers, which
plays an important role in designing of trenches, dams, tunnels, and other engineering structures.
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Moreover, identification of failure mode in rock slopes plays an important role in designing of an
appropriate supporting system. In the past decades, some researchers have focused on stability
assessment of rock slopes (Hoek and Bray, 1981; Goodman, 1989; Wyllie and Mah, 2004).

There are four primary modes of rock slope failure namely planar failure, wedge failure,
rotational failure, and toppling failure. A detailed review of different types of rock slope failures
has been presented by Goodman and Kieffer (2000). Influential factors in causing instability are
structural geology factors such as joints, faults and folds (Alavi Nezhad Khalil Abad et al., 2011).
Sliding of a rock mass on the joint/weak plane dipping away from the slope is termed as the planar
failure. It generally occurs in hard or soft rock slopes with well-defined discontinuities and
jointing, e.g., layered sedimentary rocks, volcanic flow rocks, block jointed granite, and foliated
metamorphic rocks. When two distinct planes of weaknesses, joints or fault planes exist, the rock
mass between these planes can slide down; this mode of failure is known as the wedge failure.
According to Kliche (1999), rotational failures are little-deformed slumps, which are slides along a
surface of rupture that is curved concavely upward. In slumps, the movement is more or less
rotational about an axis that is parallel to the slope. Toppling failure takes place when a regularly
spaced set of joints or bedding planes strike parallel, or nearly parallel, to the slope face and dip at
a steep angle into the face.
Stability charts for soil slopes were first produced by Taylor (1937) and then draw the
attention of many investigators to be used extensively as design tools (Hoek and Bray, 1981; Gens
et al. 1988). Unfortunately, no stability chart is available in the literature to assess the stability of
rock slopes based on rock mass strength criteria. Although the stability charts proposed by Hoek
and Bray (1981) for Mohr-Coulomb material can be applied to rock slopes, this requires
knowledge of the equivalent Mohr-Coulomb cohesion and friction for the rock mass. Besides,
numerous studies have been performed to determine failure modes by stereographic projection
technique (Goodman, 1976; Hocking, 1976; Hoek and Bray, 1981; Matherson, 1988; Markland,
1972; Cruden, 1978). In this study, stability assessment of a railway trench is performed by
analysis of the geological structure using stereographic projection technique.

SITE LOCATION
This study was carried out on a trench located at an entrance of a railway tunnel near Veresk
(Figure 1) in North of Iran (latitude: 3554'26.73"N and longitude: 5259'27.94"E).
This site was selected for the study due to high suspicious of failure in this area as it had
specific geological structure. It is important to evaluate instability of the trench and find out the
type of possible failure to design an appropriate supporting system for failure prevention. The
mentioned area consists of multi layers of rock as marl, thin shale, and siltstone which based on
geology map (Figure 2) belong to Barout zone. The geological age of the mentioned area is
Precambrian. There is an anticline in the studied area. The geometry of the trench is as length of
130 m, height of 21 m, and slope angle of 78. The orientation of trench is 6 from North. Figure
3 shows the overview of Veresk trench.

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Figure 1: Site location of Veresk trench

Figure 2: Geological map of Barout zone with the scale of 1:250000

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Figure 3: The overview of Veresk trench

METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

The study consisted of surveying of weakness planes and joints in the site. The geological
study was performed utilizing walk over method as well as discontinuity surveys such as scan line
surveys. Moreover, in this case study, the kinematic stability analysis of the rock slope was carried
out. Kinematic analysis, which is purely geometric, determines which modes of slope failure are
possible in a jointed rock slope (Wyllie et al., 2004; Mohamad et al., 2011). It refers to the
geometrically-possible motion of a body without consideration of the forces involved. Also
Angular relationships between discontinuities and slope surface are analyzed to determine the
potential and modes of failures (Kliche, 1999).
Field study data such as discontinuities orientation, spacing were recorded by scanline
method. Then dips software was used as a stereographic plot technique to identify the number of
discontinuity sets and their orientation. Figure 4 shows the daylight envelope of toppling, planar,
and wedge failure. These envelopes are used to recognize the modes of failure for each major joint
set in rock exposure. Moreover, some of the geomechanical properties of the rock exposure were
tested and the results are presented in Table 1.

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Figure 4: Daylight envelopes on equal area stereonet

Table 1: Geomechanical parameters of Veresk trench.

Density (gr/cm3)
2.6

Cohesion (kPa)
250

Friction angle (degree)

32

cm (MPa)
4.7

Edm (GPa)
2.3

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In order to evaluate the stability of Veresk trench, geological and structural geology data of
the site were recorded. To understand the mode of rock slope failure, analysis of the geological
structure was performed using stereographic projection technique. Figure 5 shows three major
joint sets as J1, J2, and J3 with dip/dip directions respectively as 80/195, 78/20, and 28/240. It
should be noted that dip/dip direction of trench face is 78/6.

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Figure 5: Plans of major joint sets and trench face

Figure 6 shows the major joint sets of the trench and daylight envelops for toppling failure. It
can be seen that a joint set is located in daylight envelope of toppling failure. As a result, there is a
probability of toppling failure along the trench face. This result was expected because the slope
angle of trench face was less than the dip angle of J1.

Figure 6: Major joint sets and daylight envelops of toppling failure

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Figure 7 shows the major joint sets of the trench and daylight envelops for Planar failure. It is
seen that joint set number 3 is caused planar failure in Veresk trench. It is clear that this joint set is
located near the black zone.

Figure 7: Major joint sets and daylight envelops of planar failure

Figure 8 shows the major joint sets of the trench and daylight envelops for wedge failure. As
mentioned earlier, when two distinct planes of weaknesses, joints or fault planes exist, the rock
mass between these planes can slide down as wedge failure. It is observed that there is no such
condition to have wedge failure.

Figure 8: Major joint sets and daylight envelops of wedge failure

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Slope stability evaluation of a railway trench near to Veresk in North of Iran was conducted
based on its geological data. For this purpose, discontinuities orientation condition was recorded
by utilizing scanline method and the collected data were used to analyze the mode of rock slope
failure. Dips software was used as a stereographic plot technique to identify the number of
discontinuity sets and their orientation. Three major joint sets were identified as J1, J2, and J3 with
dip/dip directions respectively as 80/195, 78/20, and 28/240. After evaluating all possible rock
slope failures, it was concluded that toppling and planar failures can be occurred in the Veresk
trench due to dip/dip direction of J2 and J3.
With the help of observation and result of stereographic plot technique, the following
recommendations are advised in designing a supporting system:

In order to prevent water flow into the joints, a reinforced shotcrete layer with
thickness of 5 to 10 cm should be applied.
In order to decrease the probability of both planar and toppling failures, a retaining
wall with minimum height of 10 m (about half of trench height) should be
constructed.
In order to collect the rain water, water channels should be installed in the
upstream of the trench.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for its financial support.

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