Abstract
Joints and faults often control stability of rock slope. Although various numerical techniques have been developed in order to model these discontinuities, it is still extremely difficult, if not impossible, to predict behavior of jointed rocks slopes due to lack of reliable geological data. The objective of this paper is to report an example of how numerical analysis may be applied to extract useful information when data required for the analyses are limited. To this end, a rock slope with distinct joint sets was selected and the distinct element method (DEM) was used to find factors and mechanisms that control the stability rather than predicting the stability with safety factors. There are, however, a number of factors that may affect the stability and therefore a number of parametric simulations may be needed. In this study, factorial design method was applied to effectively determine the factors that have significant influence on the stability with minimum number of simulations. The results indicate important factors that can be useful in focusing location of further investigation and designing counter-measures to stabilize the rock slopes.
