Abstract
The slope failure so far has been occurred due to the heavy rainfall, and induced losses of a human life and properties produces. In order to prevent these damages, the measurement and the evaluation for the strength characteristics of the ground such as the shear strength and the angle of internal friction should be required. The direct shear box test (DST) for this has been generally used. Kim et al. (2012) reported that the result in the DST could be varied according to the difference of the opening size between the shear boxes, and suggested the Threshold-Line (TL) as a standard for the opening size. Thus, the suggestion of the opening size by Kim et al. (2012) in this study was discussed through the distinct element method (DEM) simulation. As a result, the shear behaviors obtained by the DEM simulation are similar to their experimental results. Thus, it is expected that the TL can be a standard for the opening size between the shear boxes.
