Slope failure analysis considering anisotropic characteristics of foliated rock masses

Weak planes affect the strength and deformational behaviors of rock slopes, and the anisotropic characteristics of rock mass should be considered in slope stability analysis. Effects of joint plane orientations on failure mechanism and strength response of inherently anisotropic rock samples were firstly investigated. The specimens with various orientations of joints were evaluated under uniaxial compression, Brazilian tensile, and direct shear tests. By treating the foliated rock as transversely isotropic materials, the relevant elastic constants and strength parameters were obtained from experimental results. The slope damage zone was then investigated using Comsol Multiphysics code based on Hoffman criterion. It is indicated that the failure mechanism and strength response depend highly on the inclination of specimens with respect to the loading direction. For disks with the same inclination angle, the value of tensile strength has an increasing trend with the total fracture length. Numerical results show that partial slope mass failed in single slope and no large-scale landslide occurred. The failure pattern in numerical results agrees well with the field observations. The cooperation between the experimental results and the numerical results allows an in-depth analysis of the experimental results and thus better understanding the dominant effect of joints on the deformation and failure of rock mass.