Stability of Unsupported Conical Slopes in Hoek-Brown Rock Masses
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Stability of Unsupported Conical Slopes in Hoek-Brown Rock Masses Wittawat Yodsomjai 1 & Suraparb Keawsawasvong 1
& Suched
Likitlersuang 2
Accepted: 26 August 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This paper presents new plasticity stability solutions of unsupported conical rock slopes, obeying generalised Hoek-Brown failure criterion. To solve the problem, a finite element limit analysis framework is selected to investigate the stability of the conical rock slopes. Four dimensionless parameters influencing the stability factor of the conical slopes including excavated height ratios, slope inclinations, geological strength index and yield parameter of Hoek-Brown model are considered in this study. The numerical solutions of the stability factor of the conical slopes are proposed as design charts. The failure mechanism of conical slopes influenced by the four dimensionless parameters is also presented and discussed in the paper. Keywords Conical slope . Hoek-Brown yield criterion . Limit analysis . Rock mass . Slope
stability . Unsupported excavation
1 Introduction Over these three decades, the finite element limit analysis (FELA) which is a numerical technique combining the concepts of limit analysis based on the plastic bounding theorems (Drucker et al. 1952), finite element method and mathematical programming
* Suraparb Keawsawasvong [email protected] Wittawat Yodsomjai [email protected] Suched Likitlersuang [email protected]
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Thammasat School of Engineering, Thammasat University, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
2
Centre of Excellence in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
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has been employed to solve many stability problems regarding to the geotechnical engineering field. The FELA can be used to estimate the true limit load of several stability problems by bracketing the upper bound (UB) and lower bound (LB) solutions. More details on UB and LB FELA are described later in the paper and also can be found in Sloan (2013). Using FELA, problems with complicated geometries, loadings and boundary conditions can be solved by utilising the technique of mathematical programming in conjunction with the finite element discretisation and the optimisation technique. For slope stability problems, Li et al. (2008, 2009, 2011) and Qian et al. (2017) utilised FELA to obtain the stability solutions of planar rock slopes under plane strain condition. A conical slope which is an inclined slope under axisymmetric condition can be widely found in many construction projects. It can be commonly used during the construction processes of in situ piles, bridge piers, concrete storage tanks, utility openings and inspection chambers. The early studies on vertical unsupported circular excavations in homogeneous clays were carried out by Griffiths and Koutsabeloulis (1985), Pastor
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