ABSTRACT

The stability of fractured rock slopes is strongly related to the geometrical and mechanical characteristics of natural discontinuities, which require to be explicitly taken into account in the numerical analyses through a discontinuum approach. The model most widely used considers the discontinuities to be fully persistent, disregarding the presence of rock bridges inside the rock mass. However, this assumption can be highly pessimistic in terms of stability, because the presence of even small bridges of intact rock substantially increase joint strength (Einstein et al., 1983).