‘motvoitne Design oth 2 Coty Bacon & Meas) © 1859 Bator, Rot ISD 81108256 Assessment of the stability of jointed rock slopes BAshby ‘Ashby Consulting Services, Auckland, New Zealand ABSTRACT: Geological structure plays ¢ dominant role in determining the stability of most rock slopes. The analysis of geological structure by means of Sereographic projection is an established technique. Even with the advent of powerful computer erepics, stereographic projection stil ranks among the most effective means of presenting and visualising complex combinations of geological siructures. The paper reviews simple methods of stereogrephic projection for analysis of geotogical structure. ‘The Search Net technique is presented. The Search Net is superimposed on stereographic. projections of poles and used to determine likely modes of failure and worst stability conditions (i. the lowest Factor of Safety) for jointed rock slopes. 1 INTRODUCTION Rock slopes, except those which exhibit Jow incact strength or parcculaly imtense fracuning, 2-oimansiona “Wad to fail along discrete discontinuities such as Liccanehiseraiad bedding planes, joints and faults. Me ses contain-a number of sets of - iscontinuities) Each set can be composed of ing orientation, frequency, extent and surface properties. The orientation and characteristics of these surfaces are usually studied by means of stereographic. projection. 8 DIMENSIONAL ‘Stereographic projection is a powerful aid in the WEDGE FAILURE visualisation of complicated 3-D structure. Analysis_of rock slope stability is further . an . complicated by the range of mechanisms that _ include _ sliding —along diseontiiuities, rotation of blocks (e.g. toppling) ed faTadeThinagh intact material. Flare wil er aoke ns sation ot ese mechanisms. The orientation of major joints fesciseelanrpat plays major part in determining the, probable eaves ‘mode of failure. Basic modes of joint ontrolled failure are illustrated in Figure 1 Fig. | Common modes of failure 19Fig. 2. Lower hemisphere equal area projection of plane dipping 50° azimuth 290° 2 S, BREOGRAPHIC PROJECTION Stereographic projection is a powerful aid in the visualisation of complicated 3-D_ structure. ‘When studying the orientation of a large number of planar discontinuities, —stereographic projection is still the most effective method When gc cfating a stercogram, the planes are considered to lie at the centre of a hemisphere and their projections ftom the surface of that hemisphere are displayed on a circular plot or net (Figure 2), Projection from the lower hemisphere to the plar plane is used throughout this paper. ‘The techniques have been described in more detail by many authors (Phillips 1971; Hock & Bray 1977) Unfortunately, the techniques of stereographie projection can be rathee confusing even to many * seasoned practitioners ‘Two types of stereographic projection are in ‘common use 1) The equa angle net is formed by direct -ptojection from the hemisphere such that angular ‘relationships are honoured 2) The Schmidt or equal area net is ‘generated such that area relationships on the hemisphere are approximated on the projection. ‘The equal area net is used for plotting poles (er normals) to planes. Each plane, with a given dip and dip azimuth, is represented by a point (as shown in Figure 3) Tne traditional method of plotting stercograms ‘manually involved a confusing and cumbersome process of rotating a piece of tracing paper overlaid on a sfereonet. A faster method involves direct plotting on a blank form as illustrated in Figure 3, The dip direetion (or azimuth) is tead off a scale around the circumference of the net and the dip, from a radical scale about the centre, With the advent of PC and readily available and relatively inexpensive software, stereograms can be plotted even more rapidly and to a camera ready quality Figure 4), 1 study of the orientation of ities is best carried out on an equal area net, The density distribution of poles is contoured to define sets or populations of discontinuities. Computer routines are readily available that smooth the contours. A Gaussian ‘normal smoothing routine was used in preparing the contours in Figure 5 Fig. 3 Stereograph (polar, eg corer Rays Seiya Fig. 4 Computer In absence of a using a counting « fast, simple and int ‘The counting ©tionships on the 1 the projection, for plotting poles lane, with a given ited by a point (as tting stereograms ‘and cumbersome of tracing paper \ faster method blank form as Aip direction (or ale around the the dip, from a With the advent © and relatively ns can be plotted era réady quality orientation of ‘out on an equal ation of poles is populations of tines are readily vurs. A Gaussian ased in preparing Fig 3. Stereographie pole plotting form (polar, equal area, lower hemisphere) corer eamrer BEF enpte Pome SO «sna cnted open jst Fig. 4 Computer plotted stereogram of poles In absence of a computer, manual contouring using a counting circle illustrated in Figure 6 is fas, simple and informative ‘The counting circle has an area that is one carrer pore at Seopte Pines 11> Fig. S Computer generated contours (Schmidt plot 113 poles) percent of the total area of the projection. The ‘one percent density contour (Je. one percent of total poles Iying in one percent ofthe area of the net) is drawn by moving the circle around the plot to include one percent of the total poles represented, Higher value contours are then added. By this means a typical contour plot can bbe completed in a few minutes. Planes can also be represented by theif” great circle traces. This is best cartied out on an equal angle projection although the error in using an equal area net is not signficant, for most practical purposes. Use of preat circles enables angular relationships between planes to be ‘measured fairly accurately. Unfortunately, great circle construction tends to be confusing especially when more than a few planes are represented Figure 7 shows the great circles of the 113 poles in Figure 4 and is included to illustrate just how ‘confusing great circle plots can be, Because of the confusion that can result from use of great circles, equal area pole plots are used in the technique presented in this paper.