block-flexure is the most common mode of toppling failure in natural and excavated rock slopes. in such failure, some rock blocks break due to tensile stresses and some overturn under their own weights and then all of them topple together. in this paper, first, a brief review of previous studies on toppling failures is presented. then, the physical and mechanical properties of experimental mode...

Block-flexure is the most common mode of toppling failure in natural and excavated rock slopes. In such failure, some rock blocks break due to tensile stresses and some overturn under their own weights and then all of them topple together. In this paper, first, a brief review of previous studies on toppling failures is presented. Then, the physical and mechanical properties of experimental mode...

The geomechanical classification SMR (Slope Mass Rating) enables the preliminary assessment of the susceptibility of rock slopes to failure. The SMR index is obtained from Bieniawski’s basic RMR (Rock Mass Rating) through an “adjustment factor” and an “excavation factor”. Since its appearance in 1985, this classification has been used for appraisals and preliminary studies in many countries. Th...

Time series of dilatometric measurements of relative displacements on rock cracks on stable and unstable sandstone slopes were analyzed. The inherent dynamics of rock slopes lack any significant nonlinearity. However, the residuals obtained by removing meteorological influences are fat-tailed non-Gaussian fluctuations, with short-range correlations in the case of stable slopes. The fluctuations...

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: bedrock fractures threshold slopes landslides landscape evolution erosion Bedrock fracturing and rock strength are widely believed to influence landscape morphology and erosional resistance. Yet, understanding of the quantitative relationship between rock-mass strength and landscape evolution remains limited. Here we present a new application of seismic refractio...

This paper researches two key factors (angle and thickness) of a weak layer in relation to their influencing mechanism on slope stability. It puts forward the sliding surface angle and morphological model criteria for the control of rock slopes and realization of its failure mechanism. By comparing the Failure Modes and Safety Factors (Fs) obtained from numerical analysis, the influence pattern...

The objective of this paper is to present a new rock mass classification system which can be appropriate for rock slope stability assessment. In this paper an evaluation model based on combining the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Fuzzy Delphi method (FDM)was presented for assessing slope rockmass quality estimates. This research treats the slope rockmass classification as a group deci...

We present a suite of extensions for ARCVIEW GISTM (ESRI) that allows to map the spatial distribution of first-order mechanical slope-properties in hard rock terrain, e.g. for large slope areas like water reservoir slopes. Besides digital elevation data, this expert-system includes regional continuous grid-based data on geological structures that might act as potential sliding or cutoff planes ...