Study on rock block seismic sliding using three‐dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis

Abstract

AbstractThe seismic sliding of rock masses is an important phenomenon that is widely involved in earthquake geological hazards. Practical seismic sliding is a three‐dimensional problem, namely, the seismic loads may act in any direction and the rock masses may move in an arbitrary direction relative to the sliding plane. In the present work, the functions of two different seismic loading methods, that is, loading as body force time histories to the sliders or as displacement time histories to the base, are added to the program of the three‐dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis (3D‐DDA) method that is based on the contact theory to study the seismic sliding of rock blocks. The theoretical solutions of single‐block sliding on an incline under the two seismic loading methods are derived. By comparing the 3D‐DDA results of single‐block seismic sliding with the corresponding theoretical results, and comparing the 3D‐DDA results of seismic sliding of three‐stacked‐blocks under the two seismic loading methods, the correctness of 3D‐DDA for seismic sliding simulations is validated. Thereafter, the influence of three‐dimensional seismic components on single‐block sliding, and the movement of block groups under different seismic load conditions are investigated by 3D‐DDA simulations, which indicate the importance to consider rock mass seismic sliding as a three‐dimensional problem and the capability of 3D‐DDA for its analysis. This work builds a meaningful basis for the further numerical simulation study on the earthquake‐induced rock mass movements by 3D‐DDA.