An Energy-Based Discrete Element Modeling Method Coupled with Time-Series Analysis for Investigating Deformations and Failures of Jointed Rock Slopes

Abstract

The discrete element method (DEM) can be effectively used in investigations of the deformations and failures of jointed rock slopes. However, when to appropriately terminate the DEM iterative process is not clear. Recently, a displacement-based discrete element modeling method for jointed rock slopes was proposed to determine when the DEM iterative process is terminated, and it considers displacements that come from rock blocks located near the potential sliding surface that needs to be determined before the DEM modeling. In this paper, an energy-based discrete element modeling method combined with time-series analysis is proposed to investigate the deformations and failures of jointed rock slopes. The proposed method defines an energy-based criterion to determine when to terminate the DEM iterative process in analyzing the deformations and failures of jointed rock slopes. The novelty of the proposed energy-based method is that, it is more applicable than the displacement-based method because it does not need to determine the position of the potential sliding surface before DEM modeling. The proposed energy-based method is a generalized form of the displacement-based discrete element modeling method, and the proposed method considers not only the displacement of each block but also the weight of each block. Moreover, the computational cost of the proposed method is approximately the same as that of the displacement-based discrete element modeling method. To validate that the proposed energy-based method is effective, the proposed method is used to analyze a simple jointed rock slope; the result is compared to that achieved by using the displacement-based method, and the comparative results are basically consistent. The proposed energy-based method can be commonly used to analyze the deformations and failures of general rock slopes where it is difficult to determine the obvious potential sliding surface.

An Enhanced Discrete Element Modeling Method Considering Spatiotemporal Correlations for Investigating Deformations and Failures of Jointed Rock Slopes

“…To date, there has been much research work that attempts to solve the above problem associated with determining when the iterative process could be terminated. For example, Zhang et al [42] combined the energy-based discrete element method with time-series analysis to determine when the discrete element iterative calculation process could be terminated. Shen et al [43] analyzed the influence of the discontinuity of rock mass joints on slope stability, and conducted a sensitivity analysis on different input parameters.…”

“…This proposed method considers not only the mass or weight of the block, but also the displacement of the block. Compared with the energy-based method [42], the proposed method in this paper considers both the temporal and spatial correlation between all blocks, which is more comprehensive. Meanwhile, the calculation cost and efficiency of the proposed method are basically the same as those of the displacement-based method and the energy-based method.…”