Efecto del espaciado en el cálculo de estabilidad de cuñas en taludes rocosos

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to evaluate the effect of discontinuity spacing in the estimation of the factor of safety of rock slopes affected by wedge failures. To this effect, a 3D numerical discrete-element code (3DEC) has been selected to carry out about 200 simulations in which the factor of safety of two types of slopes, affected by different discontinuity sets, was studied by using the Shear Strength Reduction (SSR) method. As for the development of the models, six values of spacing, cohesion and two friction angles of the joints have been considered, combined with two angles of the slope face under study. The joint spacing has been found to affect relevantly the values of the factor of safety, which can show variations of up to 40 % in comparison with those obtained from limit equilibrium methods, for rock slopes with similar structural characteristics. Thus, this work aims at opening the door to a more realistic interpretation of rock slope failure mechanisms, particularly to better estimations of the factor of safety against wedge failures.