Slope stability analysis by using

Universal Distinct Element Code

KOMPALLY KARUNAKAR, MALLA CHAITANYA, Dr. I. L. MUTHREJA

Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
Email: kompallykarunakar@gmail.com,
chaitanyamalla@students.vnit.ac.in

ABSTRACT
In recent years slope stability plays vital role in mining as well as civil engineering
fields. UDEC is used for bench slope stability analysis in mining, and is used for hills
and terrain slope stability in civil engineering fields. Lack of proper analysis may lead
to loss of life or property or both. For instance, failure of dump in jayant mines killed 5
people and one shovel buried under debris. From many years in the course of history we
came across a lot of accidents and loss of life due to the failure of slopes. The reason is
just a lack of prediction through our method of calculations. The modern Numerical
methods with a huge advancement in their formulations made the calculations accurate
and easy for the workman to understand the stresses in the rock and in the earth surface.
From this a prior plan can be made to avoid the oncoming accidents because of slope
failure at a particular location. We used Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC)
software and had done experiments on opencast bench slope stability.
Authors would like to thank CMPDIL- Coal Mine Planning, Nagpur and Western Coal
Field (WCL) Nagpur for providing data and pertaining to the mine. A very special
thanks to Department of Mining Engineering, VNIT Nagpur for providing resources.
INTRODUCTION:
The Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC) that simulates the dynamic or quasi static
response is a two-dimensional numerical software to loading of media containing
multiple, intersecting joint structures[1].

Assemblage of discrete blocks represents the discontinuous medium, while boundary

conditions between blocks are represented by discontinuities. UDEC separates the rock
mass into various discrete blocks. The discontinuity is represented in the model as a
contact between the two blocks. The contact between each block is considered as
boundary and forces are estimated to solve the relative normal displacements at the
block contacts[2]. Along discontinuities rotations and large displacements may happen.
UDEC can model complex, non-linear behaviors by using explicit solution scheme.

UDEC also contains language FISH, the powerful built-in programmer. FISH is
shortcut for FLACish which is used for FLAC, a two dimensional, finite difference and
continuum program. FISH can be used for writing own functions for numerical
modelling.

The stability of these slopes mainly depends on the rock strength, orientation and
characteristic of the discontinuities and weathering conditions/ environmental
conditions[3]. The joint characteristics and shear strength are the major factors that are
governing the stability of rock slopes[4][5]. In earlier DEM has been used by a number
of researchers to simulate various rock engineering conditions. Zhang et al., have
studied the dynamic behavior of a 120-m high rock slope using the DEM [6]. Later then
Rathod et al. have used UDEC for the analysis of static and dynamic response of dam
abutments with a liner Coulomb slip constitutive model [7][8]. Our project deals with
the opencast bench slope stability in Mining by using this UDEC.

Study area:
This paper focuses on slope stability of gondegaon opencast mine, one of the mines in
western coalfield limited, Nagpur region. The current capacity of mine is 0.33Mt, and
planned to expand mine to produce 6Mt. MECL has explored surrounding area for the
purpose to expand the mine. Having received the data from CMPDIL, planning division
 of coal India limited, authors simulated the model using UDEC to suit geotechnical and
geological conditions.

Properties of rock:

Rock Properties
Density - 2000 kg/m3
Young's modulus - 20 Gpa
Poisson's ratio - 0.3
Cohesion - 25 kpa
Friction angle - 25o

Numerical simulated data:

UDEC is used for simulation of benches. Bench height is taken as 15m, equal to boom
height of hydraulic shovel is used for loading.
The effect of bench slope angle and joints on factor of safety have been studied by using
UDEC numerical analysis software.
Fixing the height, bench slope angle is increased from 30o to 55o for reaching an
optimum angle. At every angle FOS and velocity vectors are plotted.

Reports generated by using Numerical analysis

 1. Effect of angle on slope stability:
For angle 30o:
Max velocity: 9.552×10-05 m/s2.
Factor of safety: 1.57

Figure 1: Displacement and FOS plot for slope angle 30o.

For angle 35o:

Max velocity: 9.075×10-05 m/s2.
Factor of safety: 1.40

Figure 2: Displacement and FOS plot for slope angle 35o.

For angle 40o:
Max velocity: 9.621×10—05 m/s2.
Factor of safety: 1.25

Figure 3: Displacement and FOS plot for slope angle 40o.

For angle 45o:

Max velocity: 8.360×10-05 m/s2.
Factor of safety: 1.14

Figure 4: displacement and FOS plot for slope angle 45o.

For angle 50o:
Max velocity: 1.244×10-04 m/s2.
Factor of safety: 1.04

Figure 5: Displacement and FOS plot for slope angle 50o.

For angle 55o:

Max velocity: 2.163×10-04 m/s2.
Factor of safety: 0.96

Figure 6: Displacement and FOS plot for slope angle 55o

 2. Effect of joints on slope stability:

For no joints:
Factor of safety: 1.11
Max particle velocity: 1.099×10-04 m/s2.

For flatter joints with day lighting:

Factor of safety: 1.09
Max particle velocity: 2.684×10-04 m/s2.
For steeper joints with day lighting:
Factor of safety: 0.94
Max velocity: 2.536×10-03 m/s2.

For multi set joints:

Factor of safety: 0.96
Max velocity: 2.163×10-04 m/s2.
Results and discussion:
When the slope angle is increased from 30o to 55o we observed the factor of safety got
decreased from 1.57 to 0.96.
This trend is represented by the equation
Factor of safety= -[0.021×(slope angle)]+2.137.

S.No Slope angle FOS

1 30 1.57
2 35 1.40
3 40 1.25
4 45 1.13
5 50 1.04
6 55 0.96
Table 1: slope angle with FOS

Graph 1: FOS- slope angle

We observed a decrement in the factor of safety and the stability of the slope of the
bench as we are increasing the bench slope angle can be observed in Graph 1 and
Table 1. As we cannot go for flatter deposits all the time because of cost increase in
excavating the burden, we generally go for steeper slopes. But that has a limit again.
How steep can we go? That is what we have to calculate.
For general and as handy we use to take Factor of safety as greater than 1.12 because
FOS 1 has always border issues. For our case we have assigned the rock properties that
we got from the mine and simulated using the software. We got a limiting value for
factor of safety as 48.42 for our case.

In the other case we made a study on the effect of joints on this slope stability of the
opencast benches. The joints are of different types, like set of joints with a continuity,
set with discontinuity, few number of joints with minimum number as one. They even
vary with their orientations. Some will have infillings between them, Some are
multidirectional etc,
All these have their own effect on the stability of our slope with respective to their own
properties. We have conducted study on few kind of joints that are shown earlier and
stated in Table 2.

S.No Case Factor of safety

1 No joints 1.11
2 One set Flatter joints 1.09
3 One set Steeper joints 0.94
4 Multi set joints 0.96
Table 2: FOS with Joints conditions

If we observe the trend of factor of safety here, we can observe the bench without joints
has higher factor of safety and that factor of safety started decreasing as the joint sets
increased. One more thing that we observed during our research was factor of safety has
increased at a stage where the joint sets are in opposite to day lighting fashion. When
the joint sets are cutting the slope and dipping inside, away from the slope there the
factor of safety has increased because of an arrest to the sliding movement. We
observed that a chance to toppling can take place by forming tension cracks that can
connect joints by increasing the stress on the rock. This model was not included in this
paper.
When multi-set joints are present another important factor that even effects on stability
is the angle and orientation of those joint sets which means the angle between them.
 CONCLUSION

1. A bench height of 15m is simulated by using UDEC. A safe and optimum factor of
safety is taken as 1.12. Observed in Graph 1
The relationship between slope angle and FOS is established as
FOS = [-{0.021×(slope angle)} +2.137]. Derived from the Graph 1.

2. For safe factor of safety slope angle was observed at 48.42o. Which means the
slope should not be higher than this for this particular rock.

3. In the other case FOS for no joints is higher compared with that of joints. As angle
of joints is increased the FOS got reduced. FOS for flatter joints is higher than
FOS of steeper joints.

4. The Stability of Slope depends on

a) Slope angle
b) Height of the bench
c) Physical properties of rock
d) Joint properties of joint
e) Humidity/ moisture content

5. Some additional environmental factors has also impact on slope like

a) Temperature
b) Wind and its carrying capacity
c) Rainfall
d) Seismic activities like earthquakes and ground movements

6. All this factors except the environmental can be added into the UDEC software for
getting better and accurate results. Rock properties and joint properties are
important.
References

1. http://www.itascacg.com/software/udec date: 8-mar-2016, 7:05pm.

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of Rock Slopes, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 773-788.

3. R. Bhasin and A. M. Kaynia. (2004). Static and Dynamic Simulation of a 700-m

High Rock Slope Failure in Western Norway. Engineering Geology, Vol. 71, No. 3-
4, pp. 213-226. doi:10.1016/S0013-7952(03)00135-2.

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