RocPlane Overview

RocPlane is a simple to use, interactive software tool for assessing the stability of planar sliding blocks / wedges in rock slopes. It also allows users to estimate the support capacity required to achieve a specified Factor of Safety. A planar wedge is a wedge for which sliding occurs on a plane that strikes approximately parallel to the strike of the slope face. RocPlane analyzes a slice of unit thickness taken perpendicular to the strike of the slope face.

Planar stability can be assessed using:

• Deterministic analysis (safety factor), or
• Probabilistic analysis (probability of failure)

In a Deterministic analysis, RocPlane calculates the Factor of Safety for a wedge of known orientation and other input parameters. In a Probabilistic analysis, the program allows users to specify statistical distributions for various input parameters, and the number of simulations required. RocPlane then computes the Probability of Failure of the wedge by running the analysis the specified number of times, each time generating different values for the stochastic input parameters.

Other important modelling features in RocPlane analysis include:

• Water Pressure on failure plane, tension crack, and/or slope planes
• External and/or Seismic forces
• Active or passive Bolt support
• Pressure support
• Bench Design option

In all cases, the assumed failure mode is therefore translational slip. Rotational slip and toppling are NOT taken into account.

For a summary and diagram of typical wedge geometry, see Overview of Input Data in RocPlane.

For a detailed description of the methods and equations used in RocPlane to calculate the planar rock slope stability, see RocPlane Theory Documents.