Energy Catastrophe of Jointed Rock Slope Considering Spatiotemporal Variability of Strength

The spatiotemporal variability of rock mass strength for jointed rock mass is crucial for the stability of open-pit mine slopes. The Dagushan Open-pit Iron Mine was taken as the background to systematically study the unloading damage and energy evolution of high slope jointed rock mass. Through a field survey of mixed rock slope and fuzzy C-means clustering optimization analysis, the random distribution parameters of two dominant joint sets of rock mass were determined, and a three-dimensional joint network of rock mass was reconstructed. Additionally, a numerical analysis method is proposed for the energy evolution of jointed rock mass considering the spatiotemporal variation of strength, and the variation trends of gravity potential energy, elastic strain energy, and dissipation energy of jointed rock slope were analyzed. Moreover, based on the cusp catastrophe theory, an energy criterion was established for jointed rock mass slope instability. Furthermore, the energy evolution mechanism of deformation and failure of jointed rock slope under mining was elucidated. The slope safety factor obtained from the energy cusp catastrophe dissipation energy cusp catastrophe is the same as that obtained from the limit equilibrium Janbu method.