Slope failure mechanism affected by mining subsidence: a case study of highway slopes in Yangquan, Shanxi Province, China

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents details of highway slopes affected by a mining subsidence event that occurred in the Yangquan coal mining area of China in 2016. To ascertain the developmental characteristics of surface deformation, a few methods were applied for investigation and monitoring, such as multiple field investigations, unmanned aerial vehicle measurements, and time-series interferometric synthetic-aperture radar techniques. An accurate numerical simulation was conducted on two slopes for stability analysis and mining subsidence prediction. Results show that the mining subsidence developed from south to north, which was consistent with the mining direction; two subsidence centers were distributed on the ground, and the north one was located in the southeast slope foot of the highway. The influence of the mining subsidence whose subsidence magnitude reached 4 m is obviously different on both sides of the highway. Although the rock and soil structure were damaged seriously, the northwest slope was completely unstable, whereas the southeast slope remained standing. The differences were studied to illuminate that slope instability is not only due to the mechanical properties of rock mass decrease dramatically but also relates to the direction of horizontal traction force, the spatial distribution of the working face, and the effective free surface of the slope. This paper presents a case of mining landslide failure for researchers.