HE Chuan-yong, SUN Ping, WU Yong-ping, DUAN Qing-wei

Department of Geotechnical Engineering, IWHR, Beijing 100044, China

Abstract: The rock slope performing toppling failure usually involves a joint set of counter-tilt, and the failure mode involves rotation, bending and fracture of steeply dipping columns of rock. Once columns of rock rotate, the dip angles will change as well, and at the same time the friction force preventing further overturning will also increase. The edge-to-face contact will switch to continual face-to-face contact gradually as the dip angles change, and then the toppling deformation will stop and the slope will return to the stable state from the unstable state. In this paper, a typical problem designed by Hoek and Bray is verified by using DDA method. The whole process from initially face-to-face contact, through edge-to-face contact, then back to face-to-face contact, and finally back into stability is simulated, and the deformation mechanism of toppling failure is primarily discussed.

Key words: DDA, toppling deformation, deformation mechanism

Published in: Journal of China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (Vol. 11 No. 2, 2013)