Experimental and Numerical Studies on the Seismic Response and Failure Pattern of Anti-Dip Rock Slope

This study aims to explore the seismic response and failure pattern of an anti-dip rock slope by experimental and numerical methods. In the experiments, a series of shaking table tests with a physical model consisting of 16 independent blocks were conducted, and the different peak ground accelerations (PGA) and sine waveform frequencies were considered as seismic loadings, including PGA of 0.24g, 0.4g, and 0.48g at a constant 4 Hz frequency and frequencies of 4, 5, and 6 Hz under a constant PGA of 0.24g. The images of the seismic response of the whole model and the component blocks were captured by a high-speed camera, and the displacements, velocities, and accelerations of each block were analyzed using image analysis software. In addition, the stability of the physical model under seismic loading was analyzed by the numerical method and was compared with the experimental results.

The preliminary findings of this research are summarized as follows: (1) the acceleration responses of the model are related to the geometries of the composed blocks and the seismic conditions; (2) the maximum sliding displacement and rotation angle of a block will decrease with an increase of frequency; (3) at a frequency of 4 Hz, the PGA increases from 0.24g to 0.48g, the sliding displacement of the blocks near the bottom of the slope were larger than those near the top, and the rotation angle also increases with increasing PGA.