Assignment A2.

0 - Slope stability

Release Date: 27th March 2017

Submission date: 24th April 2017

The Portal of an access tunnel to a mine in dolomitic limestone is to be located in a pit shown in
Figure 1. The stability of the slopes above the portal is important as any instability above the tunnel
portal can stop haulage, ventilation, and access to the mine as well as cause injuries. The dip of bench
walls is 76, and the overall dip of slopes are 63. The geometry of the benches and the Slopes
(Slopes 1 and 2) are given in Figure 2 and in an attached AutoCAD dwg file as Appendix I.

There are four discontinuity sets in the locations of Slope 1 and Slope 2 as shown in Figure 1. All
information of the discontinuities are given in an excel file (Appendix II) with the name of
Discontinuities data final.

The rock mass in the location of Slope 1 is medium fractured but in the location of Slope 2 it is very
closely jointed. The values of GSI for the rockmasses making Slopes 1 and 2 are 50 and 35
respectively. The uniaxial compressive strength of intact rock is 50 MPa at both slope locations. The
slopes are created using mechanical excavation. The density of rock mass is 2600 kg/m3 at the two
locations.

The results of direct shear tests on critical discontinuities show the cohesion of discontinuities equal to
zero and friction angle of discontinuities equal to 30.

Table 1. Design load cases for excavated slopes adjacent to critical structures

Using the given information and the design load cases in Table 1, the following tasks should be
completed. Please be advised that there is not any structural load in this problem. As shown in Table
1, combined load case A should be used for a dry condition in the slopes without seismic load. The
combined load category B should be used in the slopes when considering ground water table, and
finally the combined load case C should be used in the case of slopes with ground water and seismic
load conditions (Note: Use the combined load case A to answer Q2, the combined load case B to
answer Q3, and the combined load case C to answer Q4.

1- Perform stability analysis using a stereonet based on kinematic considerations and frictional
properties of discontinuities.
2- If there is potential for any structurally controlled failure in the slopes, determine the safety
factor using RocPlane, RocTopple, Swedge, and Slide Softwares.
3- It is assumed that the water table rises to the elevation of the first bench as shown in Figure 2.
Assume that in this case just 25% of the height of the discontinuities are filled with water.
Perform stability analysis for the slopes with consideration of water effect.
4- With consideration of horizontal seismic load coefficient of 0.12, perform stability analysis
for the 2 slopes.

Hints:

A. For kinematic analysis using Dips Software, for planar sliding consider lateral limit 20 degree
and for flexural toppling consider later limit 30 degree.
B. According to Rocscience: The % Filled Fissures option in Rocscience Software allows you
to specify the average height of water in the fissures, as a percentage of the completely water
filled state. This condition can applied for all types of joints. For further information, please
look at the Rocscience Software help manual.
C. The OBE earthquake load means that the return period of the earthquake shall be taken as 145
years. The DBE earthquake load means that the return period of the earthquake shall be taken
as 475 years. The MDE earthquake load means that the return period of the earthquake shall
be taken as 10,000 years. Please note that in this project, according to importance of the
portal of the access tunnel, you should just use OBE earthquake load.
 Tunnels portal

Figure 1. Plan view of access tunnels portal.

Figure 2. Sections from Slope 1 and 2.