Estimation of the Critical Seismic Acceleration for Three-Dimensional Rock Slopes

An analytical approach for the estimating of critical seismic acceleration of rock slopes was proposed in this study. Based on the 3D horn failure model, the critical seismic acceleration coefficient of rock slopes was conducted with the modified Hoek-Brown (MHB) failure criterion in the framework of upper-bound theory for the first time. The nonlinear Hoek-Brown failure criterion is incorporated into the three-dimensional rotational failure mechanism, and a generalized tangent technique is introduced and employed to convert the nonlinear Hoek-Brown failure criterion into a linear criterion. The critical seismic acceleration coefficients obtained from this study were validated by the numerical simulation results based on finite element limit analysis. The agreement showed that the proposed method is effective. Finally, design charts were provided for exceptional cases for practical use in rock engineering.

Automated summary

An analytical approach was proposed in this study to estimate the critical seismic acceleration of rock slopes, which utilized the modified Hoek-Brown failure criterion and upper-bound theory to convert the nonlinear criterion into a linear one. The effectiveness of the method was validated through numerical simulations, and design charts were provided for practical use in rock engineering.