ISRM-Sponsored International Symposium on Rock Mechanics:

“Rock Characterisation, Modelling and Engineering Design Methods”

Study on optimum design of high and steep slope

in deep-depressed open pit mine

M. Cai, M. Xie, J. Wang, C. Li, L. Qiao, W. Tan
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing

ABSTRACT
To ensure mining safety and save production cost, it is necessary to make optimum design of the
slope for deep-depressed open pit mines, in which the slope angle is increased as large as
possible under condition that the safety of the mining production is absolutely ensured.
Combined use of limit equilibrium analysis and numerical modeling analysis to realize reciprocal
comparison, verification and supplement of analysis results obtained by several relevant but
different methods will greatly increase reliability and accuracy of the stability analysis and
optimum design of the slope. With the optimum design, the slope angle in Shuichang iron mine
has been increased 1°-6° for 11 special sections respectively, which will remarkably reduce the
magnitude of striped waste rock and save production cost.

1 INTRODUCTION sets, which are ranked (by quantity) as: (1) NE 35°-55°;
(2) E-W; (3) NE 60°-70°; (4) NE 20°-30°; (5) S-N; (6)
Shuichang iron mine is the main supplier of iron ore for NW 30°. There are 3 big faults which extend more than
the Capital Steel Corporation and also the largest open- 10kmwith fracture width of tens to hundreds of meters in
pit metal mine in China. Since beginning of this century, E-W or NE direction (Wang et al. 2004˅.
the mining operation in Shuichang iron mine has been 2.2 Hydro-geological conditions
conducted at deep position below the surface level of the
mine, which is called “deep-depressed mining” ( Cai et In order to understand the hydro-geological conditions,
al. 2004). According to the mining plan of Shuichang especially the seepage field in deep slope rock mass,
iron mine, the height of final slope of the mine is 670m investigation measurement was conducted at 3
and the deep-depressed mining depth is 450 m. Along exploration boreholes with length of 270m-350m. From
with increase of mining depth, the slope of the mine is the measurement, the permeability coefficients of the
continuously getting higher and steeper, which causes rock mass are obtained, as shown in Table 1 (Wang et al.
that the stability and safety of the slope are getting worse 2003).
and worse, and the mining production is getting more and Table 1: Permeability coefficient (k) of rock mass
more difficult. However, on the other hand, increasing Lithological K
slope angle, i.e. making the slope steeper is also an Rock type
Sign (cm/s)
important way to decrease quantity of striped waste rock
ArS2-5 Silicon line biotite plagioclase gneiss 5.0×10ˉ7
and consequently to reduce production cost. Therefore, it
E2x Lava conglomerate 5.0×10ˉ5
is necessary to make optimized slope design in which the
Fe Magnetite quartz 3.5×10ˉ5
slope angle is increased as large as possible under Mr Migmatite granite 4.0×10ˉ5
condition to absolutely ensure safety of the mining Z1C Arkosic sandstone breccia 3.1×10ˉ4
production (Cai 2001). Q Quaternary and artificial deposits 1.0×10ˉ3
ArS2-3 Perrila biotite plagioclase gneiss 5.8×10ˉ7
2 INVESTIGATION OF SLOPE ROCK MASS ArS2-2 Pyroxene plagioclase gneiss 5.0×10ˉ5
CONDITIONS FOR MINING DESIGN Mp Migmatite gneiss 1.0×10ˉ6

2.1 Engineering geological conditions 2.3 Engineering zoning of the slope rock mass

Shuichang iron mine has a range of 5.76 km2 with length Because the range of the mine slope is very large, the
of 3600m in NE-SW direction and width of 1600m. The structures, properties, engineering geological conditions
slope rock mass is composed of 11 sets of rocks, which and so on of the rock mass are different at different
are mainly different kinds of granite, gneiss, quartzite, sections of the slope. For convenient and reliable analysis
conglomerate, pyroclastic rock, igneous rock, tektonite, and design of the slope, the slope is divided into 5
etc. engineering zones from I Wo V, in which zone I is further
Fault structures are very developed in the mine area. divided into two sub-zones of I-A and I-B, as shown in
According to orientation, the faults are divided into 6 Figure 1.
 technique, using linear regression method, the
varying regularity of the 3 principal stresses are
obtained as follows.

σ[Link] = 0.93+0.0438H (Mpa) (1)

σ[Link] = 0.61+0.0269H (Mpa) (2)

σv = 0.12+0.0259H ( Mpa) (3)

Figure 1: Engineering zoning of the slope in Shuichnag mine Where σ[Link], σ[Link], σv are maximum horizontal principal
stress, minimum horizontal principal stress, vertical
2.4 In situ stress measurement principal stress; H is burying depth with unit of m.

Both hydraulic fracturing technique and stress relief by 2.5 Physical and mechanical properties of slope rock
overcoring techniques were used for in situ stress mass
measurement in the mine. The hydraulic fracturing stress
measurement was conducted at 3 exploration boreholes For stability analysis of the slope and optimum design of
for hydro-geological investigation as mentioned above, the slope angle, comprehensive laboratory experiments
which were noted as KB, KD and KE in Figure 1. For the with 267 rock specimens were carried out. Based on
3 boreholes, hydraulic fracturing tests were performed at laboratory test results of rock specimens, the mechanical
5, 3, 3 points, respectively. The measuring results are parameters of the slope rock mass were obtained by
shown in Table 2 (Cai et al. 2004). proper discounting method which is dependent on rock
mass conditions, especially discontinuities and
Table 2: In situ stress measurement results by hydraulic deterioration degree of the rock mass. 7 physical and
Fracturing technique mechanical parameters of the slope rock mass, i.e.
Magnitude of stress Fracture density (γ), Young’s modulus (E), Poisson’s ratio (υ),
Borehole Point Depth (MPa) Direction cohesion (c), internal frictional angle (φ), tensile strength
No. No. (m)
σ[Link] σ[Link] σv (°) (T) and porosity ratio (n), are shown in Table 4. In the
1 83.7 2.16 1.66 2.21 Table, “Ma” is gneiss and “N” is basic rock, the others
2 116.4 6.68 4.08 3.07 77ǂ are the same as in Table 1.
KB 3 155.7 11.93 6.98 4.11 88ǂ
4 181.8 12.65 7.83 4.8 Table 4: Mechanical parameters of slope rock masses
5 232.8 14.79 9.25 6.15 Lithology γ E C φ T N
1 265.5 9.28 5.96 7.02 Type (kN/m-3) (GPa)
υ (MPa)
KD 2 274.8 9.79 6.26 7.26 70ǂ
(°) (MPa) (%)
3 302.7 13.21 8 8 ArS2-5 26.30 3.93 0.21 3.26 37 0.82 20
1 119.2 6.07 3.96 3.15 77ǂ Fe 28.50 12.50 0.23 2.99 35 0.94 5
KE 2 147.8 7.35 4.65 3.9 Ma 26.09 3.81 0.25 2.97 42 0.75 15
3 186.2 9.53 5.42 4.92 Mr 26.04 5.35 0.24 3.39 47 1.16 15
ZC 27.00 9.63 0.26 0.62 37 1.68 10
In situ stress measurement by overcoring technique E2X 24.77 3.50 0.23 0.56 20 0.54 25
Q 20.00 0.02 0.3 0.13 18 0.01 30
was performed at a belt transport tunnel, which is the
Mp 26.29 4.26 0.27 3.88 38 0.54 15
only one underground engineering in the mine of
N 25.98 4.00 0.16 0.56 32 0.65 15
measurement. The horizontal projection of 3 measuring
points (1#, 2#, 3#) is shown in Figure.1. The burying depth
The mechanical parameters of faults, including normal
of the 3 points is 81m, 91.5m, 56m, respectively. The
stiffness (Kn), shear stiffness (Ks), cohesion (c), internal
measuring result is shown in Table 3 (Li et al. 2004).
frictional angle (φ), tensile strength (T), are shown in
Table 3: In situ stress measurement results by overcoring Table 5.
technique
Table5: Mechanical parameters of faults
σ[Link] σ[Link] σv
Point Value Kn Ks C ϕ T
Bearing/dip Value Bearing/dip Value Bearing/dip (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (°) (MPa)
No.
(MPa) ʎ (MPa) ʎ (MPa) ʎ 1500-3000 800-1000 0.28-0.40 28-32 0.0001
ʿ
1 4.07 272.2/-7.3 2.38 3.9/-13.3 2.16 154.2/-74.8
2ʿ 4.26 90.6/-0.8 2.86 180.6/-2.9 2.68 344.9/-87.0 3 STABILITY ANALYSIS AND OPTIMUM
3ʿ 3.68 98.9/-7.2 2.33 189.7/-6.2 2.03 319.8/80.5 DESIGN OF THE SLOPE

Based on the measuring results at 14 points by 3.1 Techniques for the analysis and design
hydraulic fracturing technique and overcoring
For stability analysis and optimum design of the slope, and lower parts of the slope, commonly the lower part is
the limit equilibrium analysis and numerical modeling stronger than upper part, so the slope is designed as
techniques are jointly used, in which the limit equilibrium broken line shape, in which the slope angle at lower part
analysis uses three methods of simplified Bishop, precise is bigger than that at the upper part.
Janbu and Sarma, and numerical modeling uses two
methods of FDM and DEM. Combination of limit 3.2 Analysis and design results
equilibrium analysis and numerical modeling analysis to 3.2.1 Analysis by numerical modeling with FLAC2D
make reciprocal comparison, verification and supplement Because the computation plans are too many to show all
of analysis results of several relevant but different their detailed analysis results, section I-2 is taken as an
methods will greatly increase reliability and accuracy of example to show the computation results by FLAC2D.
the stability analyses and optimum design.
Because the mine slope presents a closed-oval shape
and its range is very large, 3D analysis for the whole 1#

slope is difficult and unnecessary. The best way is to

2#
choose 1-3 typical sections in each engineering zone and
2D analyses using 2 numerical modeling methods and 3 3#
limit equilibrium analysis methods are successively

925m
carried out for each section. Based on practical condition 4#

and importance of each engineering zone, 3, 3, 1, 3 and 1

sections are chosen for the engineering sections of I to V,
respectively, as shown in Fig.1.
For optimum design of the slope angle, 4 to 11
computation plans are made for analysis of each section. 1093.85m F36 F11 F8

Based on numerical modeling results of all computation Figure 2: Computation model of section I-2
plans, through systematic comparison of stress,
displacement, shear sliding, tensile failure, plastic area, Figure 2 shows Computation model of section I-2, in
displacing velocity and final stability tendency in slope which, 1#-4# are 4 monitoring points of displacement
rock mass, an optimum plan is recommended for slope during the computation process. F8, F11, F36 are three
design of each section. For limit equilibrium analysis, faults whose length is 550m, 100m, 600m, respectively.
optimum plan is chosen by comparison of safety factors The analysis results are shown in Table 6, in which,
of all computation plans. plan 1 is the originally designed plan. From the Table it
Among 5 engineering zones, zones I and II must be can be seen that the values of the maximum displacement
put much attention due to their engineering importance and displacing velocity at 4 monitoring points, as well as
and complicated geological conditions. Therefore, after the maximum bench horizontal displacement for plan 5 is
2D analyses for all engineering zones, both 3D limit almost the smallest. Only the horizontal displacement and
equilibrium analysis with 3DSlopeGIS and 3D numerical displacing velocity at 4# point is little bit larger, which is
modeling with FLAC3D are used for stability analysis of easily to be controlled because 4# point is at bottom of
these two zones, which plays a role to check reliability the slope and will no much influence on stability of the
and safety of the 2D analysis and design. slope. Therefore, the plan 5, i.e. 43°/45° plan, is chosen
As the rock types and properties are different at upper as the optimum design plan for section I-2.
Table 6: Computation results by FLAC2D for section I-2
Horizontal displacement Final displacing velocity Bench dis-
Plan Slope angle (cm) (m/s) placement
No (upper/lower)
1# 2# 3# 4# 1# 2# 3# 4# (cm)
1.5×10-
1 41°/41° 12 14 29 13.5 0 0 5 5×10-6 30
-6
2 41°/43° 9 15 30 10 0 0 0 5×10 30
3 43°/43° 9 14.5 30 9.8 0 5×10-6 5×10-6 5×10-6 30
4 42°/45° 7 13.5 25 7.5 0 5×10-6 2×10-6 5×10-6 25
5 43°/45° 7.5 13 25 7.5 0 0 0 1.5×10-5 25
6 44°/45° 7.5 13.5 25 7.5 5×10-6 5×10-6 5×10-6 5×10-6 25
7 45°/45° 7.5 13.5 25.5 7.5 0 5×10-6 1×10-5 1×10-5 25
8 45°/47° 11 19.5 35 11 5×10-6 0 2×10-5 2×10-6 32.5
9 47°/47° 30 14 35 11.5 0 0 2×10-6 2×10-6 35

3.2.2 Analysis by 2D limit equilibrium analysis design of the slope. In analysis conditions, gravity, water
and earthquake are considered. The analysis results for
Three commonly used limit equilibrium analysis
section I-2 are shown in Table 7.
methods, i.e. simplified Bishop, precise Janbu and Sarma
Based on safety requirement of the engineering, the
methods, are used for stability analysis and optimum
minimum value of safety factor is decided as 1.15. It can
be seen from Table 7 that in conditions of only gravity or calculated by Sarma method for plan 6 is also larger than
gravity plus one of water or earthquake, the safety factors 1.15. For such high and steep large scale slope of
for all plans calculated by all three methods are larger Shuichang mine, water and earthquake should be
than 1.15, which means the slope is stable. However, in together considered and only the identical analysis
conditions of gravity plus both water and earthquake, the decision made by all three methods can be accepted (Tan
safety factors calculated by simplified Bishop and precise et al. 2003). So plan 5 to be recommended as the
Janbu are larger than 1.15 on for the first 5 plans, but that optimum design plan for section I-2.

Table 7: Computation results by limit equilibrium analysis for section I-2

Plan Slope angle Bishop Janbu Sarma
No. upper/lower ķ ķˇĸ ķˇĹ ķˇĸˇĹ ķ ķˇĸ ķˇĹ ķˇĸˇĹ ķ ķˇ ĸ ķˇĹ ķˇĸˇĹ
1 41°/41° 1.7980 1.5615 1.3766 1.1970 1.6280 1.5244 1.3709 1.2251 1.6806 1.5768 1.5012 1.2349
2 41°/43° 1.6546 1.5051 1.2850 1.1968 1.6032 1.5179 1.2823 1.2016 1.6650 1.5374 1.3643 1.2138
3 43°/43° 1.6111 1.4882 1.2618 1.1780 1.5857 1.5057 1.2517 1.1954 1.6118 1.5006 1.3315 1.2103
4 42°/45° 1.5947 1.4784 1.2554 1.1772 1.5755 1.4858 1.2499 1.1850 1.5904 1.4933 1.3232 1.1986
5 43°/45° 1.5917 1.4713 1.2426 1.1600 1.5732 1.4729 1.2475 1.1716 1.5867 1.4858 1.3124 1.1865
6 44°/45° 1.5793 1.4551 1.2494 1.1323 1.5695 1.4657 1.2464 1.1459 1.5776 1.4693 1.2934 1.1682
7 45°/45° 1.5661 1.4460 1.2426 1.1073 1.5561 1.4561 1.2423 1.1278 1.5708 1.4538 1.2898 1.1435
8 45°/47° 1.5634 1.4328 1.2399 1.1378 1.5475 1.4525 1.2334 1.1285 1.5694 1.4408 1.2637 1.1275
9 47°/47° 1.5590 1.4294 1.2359 1.0648 1.5296 1.4379 1.2157 1.1031 1.5554 1.4229 1.2295 1.0986
* analysis condition: ķ-gravity; ĸ-earthquake; Ĺ-water.

3.2.3 Analysis by numerical modeling with UDEC 3.2.5 Verification of the recommended design plan of the
slope by 3D analysis methods
For analysis of computation results made by UDEC, the
magnitude and characters of displacement and failure Due to engineering importance and complicated
area in slope rock mass are taken as the assessing geological conditions of the engineering zone I and zone
indexes. The computation results of 9 plans by UDEC for II as mentioned above, both 3D limit equilibrium analysis
section I-2 show that the maximum horizontal and 3D numerical modeling are used to check reliability
displacement is 200mm for the first 5 plans, but it of the recommended design plan for the two zones.
reaches to 250mm for plan 6 and 300 mm for plan 7; the (1) 3D numerical analysis with FLAC3D
outwards sliding and number of failure elements in slope Displacement is an important index to assess stability
rock mass are sharply increased from plan 6. So, the of the slope. Traditional assessment is according to
UDEC analysis results also recommend plan 5 as the magnitude of the displacement to judge stability of the
optimum design plan for section I-2. slope, but there is still no available standard for the
judgment. Therefore, displacing velocity, especially its
3.2.4 Recommended optimum design of the slope angle final value and tendency are taken as a judging index in
this paper. The analysis results show that the final
The above analysis results obtained by two numerical displacing velocity are zero or tending to zero at nearly
modeling methods and three limit equilibrium analysis all monitoring points except 2 points which are located in
methods all recommend the plan 5 as the optimum design Quaternary layer and artificial deposits. There are some
plan for section I-2. Based on the analysis results for 11 small local shear and sliding failure areas near the slope
typical sections performed as the same as for section I-2, surface, but they are not linked up and less dangerous.
the recommended optimum design of the slope angle for However, the shear and sliding failure is remarkable in
all the slope is provided, as shown in Table 8. the Quaternary layer and artificial deposits. Moreover,
some shear stress concentrations are found at the bottom
Table 8: Recommended optimum design of the slope angle of the slope. Therefore, it is necessary to take proper
Slope angle Upper/lower Original support and reinforcement measures to control the
Zone Section
(Upper/lower) dividing level Plan Quaternary layer with artificial deposits and the bottom
I-1 50° — 46° of the slope before and during excavation of the slope.
I I-2 43°/45° +50m 41° As overall comment, the 3D numerical analysis with
I-3 43°/49° +10m 41° FLAC3D shows that the whole stability of the slope in 6
II-1 45°/47° -50m 46° sections of zone I and II is quite well and the
II II-2 45°/48° -111m 46°
recommended optimum design of the slope is feasible
II-3 48°/50° -112m 46°
(Feng et al. 2006).
III III-1 48° — 42°
(2) 3D limit equilibrium analysis with 3DSlopeGIS
IV-1 41° — 40°
A computational program called 3DSlopeGIS, in
IV IV-2 44°/48° +10m 42°
which a GIS Developer kit is used to fulfill the GIS
IV-3 46°/48° -50m 42°
spatial analysis function and effective data management,
V V-1 46° — 42°
has been developed by the authors. By using the spatial
analysis functions, the data management and the deep slope rock mass of Shuichang iron mine. Mining
visualization of GIS for processing the complicated Research and Development, 24(4):11-13.
slope-related data and the 3-D slope stability problem are Cai, M., Feng, J., Wang, J. 2006. Three-dimensional
easier by a friendly visual graphical user interface. solid-hydraulic coupled stability of a high steep open
In 3DSlopeGIS, three 3D-models based on column pit slope. Journal of University of Science and
elements for slope stability analysis are used, which are: Technology Beijing, 28(1): 6-11.
M1:classical model based on 3D-column elements; M2: Li, J., Cai, M., Wang, S., Miao, S. 2004. In-situ
3D-expending of Bishop model; M3: 3D-expansion of Measurement and Analysis by Stress Relaxation
Janbu model. In order to search most dangerous sliding Method in Deep Slope Rockmass. Metal Mine, (7):16-
surface of the slope, the oval-shaped sliding surface is 17.
first supposed, then Monte-Carlo method is used to Tan, W., Cai, M., Wang, J. 2001. Flac-Monte Carlo
search the sliding surface whose safety factor is method for determining the critical slip surfaces of
minimum as the influence of various discontinuities is slope. Metal Mine, (3): 7-9.
considered. At last, the most dangerous sliding surface Tan, W., Cai, M., Zhou, R. 2003. Numerical simulation
with its safety factor is found (Tan et al. 2001). of water flow in a joint slope by the dispersed element
Using this method, 19 dangerous sliding surfaces in method and reliability analysis of the slope. Journal
engineering zones I and II with the recommended of University of Science and Technology Beijing,
optimum slope angles are found. Among the 19 25(2): 99-102.
dangerous sliding surfaces, 3, 1, 3, 3, 4, 5 sliding surfaces Wang, P., Qiao, L., Li, C., Cai, M. 2003. Equivalent
are located in I-1, I-2, I-3, II-1, II-2, II-3 sections, continuum method and its application on seepage
respectively. The smallest safety factor for all 19 analysis of rock slope. Journal of University of
dangerous sliding surfaces is 1.33, which is jointly Science and Technology Beijing, 25(2): 99-102.
calculated by M1, M2 and M3 three models in conditions Wang, P., Zhao, X., Wan, L., Cai, M. 2004. Hybrid
of both water and earthquake. Therefore, the cluster analysis method based on GA and FCM for
recommended optimum design of the slope is reliable automatically identifying joint sets. Journal of
(Xie et al. 2004). University of Science and Technology Beijing, 26(3):
227-232.
4 CONCLUSIONS Xie, M., Esaki, T., Cai, M. 2004. A GIS-based method
for locating the critical 3D slip surface in a slope.
(1) For deep-depressed open pit mine, in order to Computers and geotechnics, 31(4): 267-277.
ensure mining safety and reduce production cost, it is
necessary to make the slope design optimized. In the
optimum design, the slope angle is increased as large as
possible to reduce the magnitude of striped waste rock
and the production cost under condition that the mining
safety is absolutely ensured.
(2) Combined use of limit equilibrium analysis and
numerical modeling analysis techniques to make
reciprocal comparison, verification and supplement of
analysis results obtained by several relevant but different
methods, such as Bishop, Janbu and Sarma three limit
equilibrium analysis methods and FDM and DEM two
numerical modeling methods used in this paper, will
greatly increase reliability and accuracy of the analyses
of the slope
(3) With the optimum design, the slope angle in
Shuichang iron mine has been decreased 1-6° for 11
typical sections respectively, which will reduce striping
waste rock of 80 million tons and save cost of about 500
million Chinese Yuan (RMB).

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