Smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation of rock slope stability

The stability analysis of man-made rock slopes is one of the oldest geomechanical problem, the solution of which has been given considerable attention for many years all over the world. The violation of slope stability is the cause of a landslide–a sliding displacement of rock masses down the slope according to the gravity influence. Landslides occur in any part of a slope due to an imbalance in rocks caused by: an increase in the steepness of the slope because of water washing; weakening of the strength of rocks during weathering or waterlogging by precipitation and groundwater; seismic impact etc. Largely one of the landslide causes is human activity. The main damaging factor of landslides is vast masses, falling asleep or destroying everything in its motion path. Therefore, the list of research papers on the prediction of the landslide occurrence and its consequences includes many hundreds, and their number will not decrease now. Most of them are connected with attempts to build some optimal surface in the body of the slope, along which, most likely, collapse will occur if the equilibrium state of the massif is disturbed. Numerous, sometimes very complex, methods for constructing this surface are used, which, in fact, are not far from the first, simplest approaches based on straight-line (broken) and circularly cylindrical shear surfaces. This paper presents a computer approach to assessing the landslide situation based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method (SPH). The scientific and practical value of developing such a computational approach to studying the danger of slope massifs deformation lies in the fact that it does not require a priori assignment of possible places of landslide localization, as is needed in most methods for describing landslides. The proposed computer simulation approach provides researchers with a tool that helps them make scientifically based decisions to evaluate the critical characteristics of the mining.