2011 Volume 67 Issue 1 Pages 36-49
In this paper, we conducted a centrifuge model test on earthquake-induced rock slope failure, and the test results were compared with safety factors (SF) of the sliding surface obtained by the limit equilibrium method, where the stresses on the sliding surface were estimated by the equivalent linear analysis.
A dip slope model for the centrifuge model test was made from cement, sand, iron powder and water, and discontinuities were imitated by Teflon sheets. In the test, the centrifugal acceleration was 30G, and the acceleration amplitudes of input sin waves were increased gradually at every step. As a result, the slope model collapsed when it was excited by the sine wave of 3.5m/s2, which was converted to real field scale. The artificial discontinuities considerably affected the collapse, and the type of collapse was plane failure. And moreover the trends of the computed SF showed that the threshold amplitude of the failure was lower than the actual amplitude that induced the failure, implying that the computed SF was conservative.
