ABSTRACT
A deep cut slope near a highway is located in Sichuan province, China. The region where the deep cut slope located is composed mainly of layered sandstone and mudstone, and the height of excavation is up to 80 m. The discontinuities are well developed, and have been classified into three types. Class 1 is the control discontinuity in this region with a dip angle 5~10°. Class 2 and 3 are random distribution, and the lengths of them are about 8.7 m with nearly vertical dips. In this paper, the control discontinuities are input directly to form the larger block elements; the random discontinuities are input to form the smaller block elements by using Monte Carlo simulation. Therefore, the formed block elements are similar to those observed from field investigation. Based on the improved DDA method, the deformation of this slope is analyzed, including before excavation, after excavation and bar support. The results are compared with those obtained by FEM. It is shown that the calculation results by DDA are agreeable with those by FEM; in addition, the DDA method can simulate large deformation of rock slope. Therefore, the DDA method is more effective on rock engineering.
