Analytical and Numerical Approach for Analysis of Factors Affecting Pit Slope Stability at Dorli OCP-Ii, India

In order to determine the slope stability of an open-pit mine effectively at Dorli Opencast Project-II (Dorli OCP-II) of M/s Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. (SCCL), India, from available geotechnical data, this paper proposes analytical and numerical models. Physico-mechanical properties of the rock materials required for establishing these models were obtained by laboratory tests conducted on core samples taken directly from the mine. In this research, the influence of 6 discriminant factors on the pit stability by changing one-factor-at-a-time (OAT) and keeping all other factors fixed is studied. The study utilizes Limit Equilibrium Method (LEM) based software (SLIDE), Finite Element Method (FEM) based software (RS 2 ) and Finite Difference Method (FDM) based software (FLAC/SLOPE) to analyze the sensitivity of each factor on the Factor of Safety (FoS) of pit slope for high accuracy and validation of models. The results from these methods of analyses are compared and comparison of the outputs of analyses shows a very good agreement with nominal difference (<1%) in the FoS.