Effect of discontinuities on the stability of slopes in opencast mines by equivalent material modelling technique

Abstract

Development of opencast mines and the increasing trend towards larger and deeper Dits, has attracted the attention of engineers & geologists towards the basic technology of slope stability. Equivalent material modelling technique (EM) has been adopted for proper understanding of the behaviour of slopes. This technique has proved to be useful in imitating real specific situation and studying the progressive failure mechanism. Geological discontinuities play a very vital role in the stability of slopes, hence a discontinuity plane has also been simulated in the model. This paper gives in detail, the design of EM model along with the selection of EM composition and the ratio of material used in the construction of model. Further, it also gives the procedure of simulating a geological discontinuity and the behaviour of slope as opencast excavation was done with bench width to height ratio 1:2. © 1992, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.