Abstract

Investigation about rock slope stability is one of the main issues in the field of rock mechanics from the past until now. On the other hand, there is less rocky environment without parallel or transcend joint sets, and jointing is one of the main features of rock masses. Failure mechanism as well as safety factors of rock slopes is affected by jointing conditions, geometric properties of slopes and rock material properties and strength of joints. Obviously, how to deal with these slopes and stabilization of them depends on the recognition of their behavior. In this paper, it was used, discrete element method and UDEC to examine the effect of geometric parameters of slope and joint sets, as well as rock masses mechanical parameters on the stability of jointed rock slopes stability, in the planar failure mechanism. In accordance with the results, between the geometric parameters of slope and mechanical parameters of rock mass, the first one, i.e. slope height and the dip angle, has a special significance in slope stability, in terms of safety factor, and failure surface. For example, in the low slope angles, the failure is planar and passes through the discontinuity surfaces, and with increasing the slope angle, the failure surface change to a curve and passes from the rock material. Mechanical parameters of materials and joints are almost equally effective in safety factor variation. By improving and increasing joint mechanical parameters, the failure surface passes from the rock material, and with weakening of them than mechanical parameters of rock materials, the failure surface passes through the discontinuity surfaces.