Strength reduction method for slope based on a ubiquitous-joint criterion and its application

Abstract

In order to expand the application of strength reduction methods with the ubiquitous-joint criterion, the corresponding program is compiled using FLAC 3D software. A procedure for strength reduction in the ubiquitous-joint criterion is proposed to study the safety factor of slopes as well as the relationships of the bedding plane inclination angle β and the safety factor F. The results show that: 1) for the bedding rock slope, the various failure modes cause different variations of the safety factor F; 2) a bedding rock slope can be divided into two types by the angle between the bedding plane inclination and slope surface inclination α; when α≤45°, the bedding slope can be strictly defined as the subsequent bedding rock slope; when 45°<α<90°, the bedding slope is defined as an oblique bedding slope; 3) for bedding rock slopes, the safety factor increases with an increase in α; for inverse bedding slopes, when the bedding plane inclination angle β is small, the safety factor F of the slope increases at first, then decreases with an increase in α; when β is large, the safety factor F increases with an increase in α.