Comparison of Hock–Brown and Mohr–Coulomb criteria in the stability analysis of jointed rock slopes

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the stability analysis at the right and left slopes of the road in Iran. Both field and laboratory studies were carried out. The field study included precise discontinuity surveys. Laboratory tests were carried out to determine Youngʹs modulus, uniaxial compressive strength, unit weight and shear strength parameters of discontinuities. In this study numerical modeling were used for the right and left slopes of the road. Shear strength reduction analyses was carried out using Phase2 in the basis of Hock–Brown and Mohr–Coulomb criteria. According to results of numerical analysis, Strength Reduction Factor (SRF) of the right and left slopes are 1.37 and 1.46 for Hock–Brown criterion but 1.99 and 2.14 for Mohr–Coulomb criterion respectively. The obtained results present that application of Hock–Brown criterion yielded more reliable results in this situation and any rotational failure will not occur.