Block toppling stability in the case of rock blocks with rounded edges

Alejano, Leandro R.; Sánchez–Alonso, Carlota; Pérez-Rey, Ignacio; Arzúa, J.; Alonso, E.; Gonzalez, Javier M.; Beltramone, Luisa; Ferrero, Anna María

doi:10.1016/j.enggeo.2018.01.010

Cited by 42 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Some recent works started analyzing the mechanism of toppling in blocks with shapes closer to reality, i.e., Alejano et al (2010) examined the sliding and toppling stability of a huge granitic boulder through a limit equilibrium approach and geometrical information gathered with LiDAR. The influence of rounded corners in toppling for both single and groups of blocks was studied by Alejano et al (2015Alejano et al ( , 2018 in the laboratory and on-site, respectively. Vann et al ( 2019) developed a practical reliability-based approach to evaluate the stability of precariously balanced boulders, which accounted for the 3D effects of real natural contact surface on the stability.…”

Section: Geological Background and Problem Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Insight into the Stability of Precariously Balanced Rocks

et al. 2023

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Large granitic boulders resting on steep slopes represent considerable safety hazards that largely depend on the location of the contact surface characterized by the impression d, denoting the parallel distance between the contact surface and the original rock surface. On the other hand, this impression reflecting the often convex nature of the contact between boulders and resting platforms, cannot be measured precisely, so Factors of Safety (FoS) computed with this input may have significant uncertainties. Using geometric 3D analysis, here, we present the concept of computing FoS as a function of the impression d, admitting a much more reliable estimate of the actual hazards. Beyond introducing the FoS functions, we also identify all failure modes, some of which have not yet been investigated. We compute the FoS functions for the boulder Pena do Equilibrio, located in Spain. Our computations for FoS against sliding match all earlier results. However, we also compute FoS against toppling and against torsion and show that the latter may be critical. Since our methods are general, this suggests that torsion phenomena, which have been scarcely studied so far, may be relevant to analyze the stability of other natural rock boulders.

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Section: Geological Background and Problem Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Insight into the Stability of Precariously Balanced Rocks

et al. 2023

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“…With the aim of studying the stability of rock elements, it is possible to carry out simple tilt tests under controlled environmental conditions and constant lifting velocities to estimate analytically predicted angles in the laboratory (Alejano et al, 2015(Alejano et al, & 2018.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Considerations Relevant to the Stability of Granite Boulders

et al. 2021

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Granite boulders are characteristic geomorphological structures formed in granitic terrains.Due to their formation process associated with typical spheroidal weathering phenomena, they tend to show more or less ellipsoidal shapes prone to instability, and they often lie on small contact surfaces. Analyzing the stability of these boulders is not a straightforward task. First, these boulders may topple or slide. Additionally, their typically irregular geometry and uneven contact with the surface where they lie makes the analysis more complex. The authors have identified some critical issues that are relevant to characterize these boulders from a rock mechanics point of view, with the aim of estimating the stability of boulders. In particular, an accurate description of the geometry of the boulder is necessary to perform accurate toppling calculations. Additionally, the contact area and the features of the contact plane need to be known in detail. The study is intended to serve as a guideline to address the stability of these granite boulders in a rigorous way, since standard rock mechanics approaches (planar failure, toppling stability, standard rock joint strength criteria, etc...) may not be directly applicable to these particular cases.

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“…Many scholars have carried out research on the evolution mechanism of toppling failure and identification of instability failure (Huang, 2008;Huang et al, 2017;Tao et al, 2019;Bao et al, 2022;Nie et al, 2022;Zhu et al, 2022;Li et al, 2022a). The cantilever beam theory was introduced to study the rock mass with slab fracture structure (Goodman and Bray, 1976;Sun and Zhang, 1985;Aydan and Kawamoto, 1992;Amini et al, 2009Amini et al, , 2012Liu H. J. et al, 2016;Alejano et al, 2018;Zheng et al, 2018;Cai et al, 2022a). Ni and Ye (1987) compared and analyzed the similarities and differences between the slab fracture structure rock mass and the layered rock mass, and concluded that the failure forms of the slab fracture structure are flexural toppling failure and buckling instability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical mechanism of rock mass slabbing aggravating toppling failure

Cai

Lu²,

Li³

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Many slabbing rock masses have emerged in hydropower slopes and underground engineering, with the construction of basic engineering and resource development projects along the zone of the Belt and Road. The anti-dip slabbing rock mass is prone to toppling and the degree of slabbing controls the development of toppling deformation. There are a few reports on the mechanical mechanism of rock mass toppling deformation after slabbing. Based on the analysis of the genetic conditions of rock mass slabbing, the influence of rock mass after slabbing on toppling deformation was explored by means of the mechanics method. The toppling bending deflection (TBD) and the toppling fracture depth (TFD) were selected as the analysis indexes, and the response regularity of slabbing on toppling rock mass was analyzed with examples. The results show that the width and thickness of the slabbing rock mass become narrower and thinner, the toppling bending deflection (TBD) increases, the toppling fracture depth (TFD) decreases, and the toppling deformation and failure intensify. The TBD is independent of the width of rock mass slabbing under self-weight, and the change of TBD is slow when the slab beam slabbing number (n) of thickness is <4 and fast when the slabbing number is above 4. The first TFD decreases fast when w is <2.0 m and it tends to be stable when w is above 2.0 m. The first TFD reduces relatively fast with the decrease in the thickness (t) of the slab beam. The result of this study can provide a reference for the treatment and evaluation of slabbing rock mass toppling deformation.

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Block toppling stability in the case of rock blocks with rounded edges

Cited by 42 publications

References 27 publications

A New Insight into the Stability of Precariously Balanced Rocks

A New Insight into the Stability of Precariously Balanced Rocks

Considerations Relevant to the Stability of Granite Boulders

Mechanical mechanism of rock mass slabbing aggravating toppling failure

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