A discrete element damage model for rock slopes

Alzo’ubi, Abdel Kareem; Martin, C. Derek; Crudën, D. M.

doi:10.1201/noe0415444019-c62

Cited by 16 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…To illustrate the effect of blasts on surface rock slopes, the UDEC-DM [5] was used to model fracture initiation and propagation due to high impact explosives. I used Voronoi tessellation to generate randomly sized blocks that represent the rock mass, the flaws represent joints, cracks, or smaller discontinuities.…”

Section: Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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State of the Art, Reconstruction of Damaged Zones: Transitory Stresses Effect and Factors Controlling Rock Mass Stability

Alzo’ubi¹

2018

GEOMATE

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For the last three decades, many countries in the Middle East have been bombarded by wars. In these damaged zones, removing of destruction debris and the effect of the direct impact of blasts might trigger rock mass instabilities. This paper discusses the influence of explosives on factors controlling stability of rock masses and shows the available methods to back-analyze, investigate, and/or design near-surface rocks. Explosion waves and the resulted debris may jeopardize the geomaterial stability through different factors such as; introducing new fractures inside rocks and/or soils, temporary increasing water pressure, and dynamic loading-unloading cycles. Upon unloading as a result of removing destruction debris, the stress changes and consequently destabilize soil/rock masses. These effects become of great concern in many civil engineering projects such as, road cuts, foundations, and retaining walls. Rock slopes susceptible to instability could be divided into two categories; the structurally controlled slopes, and the complex rock slopes. One mechanism, to form a continuous rupture surface in complex slopes, is by introducing new fractures through explosions and/or high rate of loading and/or unloading as transitory stresses. The modes of instabilities that have been documented are summarized to introduce the factors affecting the geomaterial slope movement in damaged zones. Hybrid modeling approaches might be the best choice to examine a rock mass vulnerability to movement by simulating the explosive stresses. Modeling the entire reconstruction process and the effect of explosions would help to reduce or to eliminate risks in the construction of new structures in after war region.

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Section: Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The methods adopted to analyze such slopes need to model coupled problems that allows for fracturing. A dry rock slope adapted from [5] is presented to investigate the effect of repeated high impact explosive loading on the slope behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

State of the Art, Reconstruction of Damaged Zones: Transitory Stresses Effect and Factors Controlling Rock Mass Stability

Alzo’ubi¹

2018

GEOMATE

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“…As the cross-joints intersected the beds in different angles, the cross-joints were required to rotate and move more than the sedimentary rocks perpendicular cross-joints to form rupture surface. UDEC-DM [14] was used to create an irregular joints pattern at a random orientation inside the rock mass that contained steeply dipping joints (see the insert in Figure 2). The toppling mode, displacement, and formation of rupture surface were monitored and showed a similarity with the behavior of the sedimentary rocks.…”

Section: Toppling In Crystalline Rocksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Block Ratio and Layer Thickness on Rock Slopes Movement Style

Alzo’ubi¹

2015

geomate

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ABSTARCT:In rock slopes, toppling movements are very common. The layers thicknesses and block ratio relative to slopes height might determine the type of slope movements and the style of toppling. In this paper, a numerical parametric study was conducted to evaluate the effect of block ratio and block thickness, in both crystalline and sedimentary rock formations, on the style of rock slopes movement in slopes prone to toppling. The mechanical defects or joints of rocks can be either random or well defined sets depends on the rock mass origin, metamorphic, igneous, or sedimentary. Different styles of movements were observed numerically in this study ranging from block toppling to rock falls. The styles of movement were also compared to the ones observed in the field. The results showed that the style movement is time dependent and three types of movement can be observed in one slope.

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“…The southeast wall of the Lornex pit at the HVC was also modeled by using the UDEC-DM (Alzo'ubi et al 2007). This UDEC-DM is utilized in this paper because it enables the modeler to create persistent and non-persistent joint sets and allows for rock mass fracturing once shear and/or tension exceeds the rock mass strength.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%