An Experimental and Theoretical Approach on the Modeling of Sliding Response of Rock Wedges under Dynamic Loading

The stability of rock slopes under dynamic loading in mining and civil engineering depends upon the slope geometry, mechanical properties of rock mass and discontinuities, and the characteristics of dynamic loads with time. The wedge failure is one of the common forms of slope failures. The authors presented some stability conditions for rock wedges under dynamic loading and they confirmed their validity through the laboratory experimental studies in a previous paper in 2000, which is often quoted by others to validate their softwares, including some commercial software. In this study, the authors investigate the sliding responses of rock wedges under dynamic loads rather than the initiation of wedge sliding. First, some laboratory model tests are described. On the basis of these model tests on rock wedges, the theoretical model proposed previously is extended to compute the sliding responses of rock wedges in time domain. The proposed theoretical model is applied to simulate the sliding responses of rock wedge model tests and its validity is discussed. In the final part, the method proposed is applied to actual wedge failures observed in 1995 Dinar earthquake and 2005 Pakistan–Kashmir earthquake, and the results are discussed.