Experimental studies of floor slip tests on soil blocks reinforced by brittle shear pins

Abstract

Massive slope failures in open pit mines are essential issues for mining projects because they can cause the loss of lives, damage to machineries and the delay of works. To understand the effect of shear pins on slope stabilisation, the aim of this paper is to employ experimental models to investigate the stability and failure mechanisms of the floor slip resistance of soil blocks that are reinforced by brittle shear pins and rest on a low-interface friction plane. The soil blocks were made of humid silica sand No. 6 and placed on a Teflon sheet. Pencil leads, 2 mm in diameter, were used as the brittle shear pins and installed perpendicularly to the bedding plane. A series of tests were carried out for the floor slip resistance of the soil blocks with shear pins by gradually tilting the models until failure was observed. Parametric studies were performed by varying the number of shear pins, the shear pin installation, and the soil block thickness. The experimental studies revealed that these parameters have a significant influence on the stability and the failure mechanisms. Three different failure mechanisms were observed in this study, namely, slip failure, punching failure and detachment failure.