Toppling Settings
The Toppling Settings tab in the Project Settings dialog allows you to configure the block generation and the toppling model in your project.
To access the Toppling settings:
- Select Home > Analysis > Project Settings
- The Project Settings dialog will open. Select Toppling Settings
from the left menu to edit the settings.
Block Generation
The Block Generation settings contain the following two options:
- Equal Area
- Goodman and Bray
Equal Area
The Equal Area method ensures that the total area of the rectangular toppling blocks is equal to the cross-sectional area of the slope (i.e. the triangle formed by the slope surface, upper slope and the overall base inclination).
The Equal Area method is the default and recommended method because it tends to provide more consistent results for a Probabilistic or Sensitivity Analysis if the slope geometry parameters are being varied (e.g. toppling joint spacing).
Goodman and Bray
The Goodman and Bray method is the method of block generation used in Goodman and Bray (1976). This method is offered in RocSlope2 if you want to compare results with the original Goodman and Bray algorithm.
This method may sometimes lead to erratic results (e.g. discrete jumps in the Factor of Safety) for a Probabilistic or Sensitivity analysis where the geometry parameters are being varied. In general, the Equal Area method is recommended unless you specifically want to compare results with the original Goodman and Bray block generation method.
Toppling Model
The available options are:
- Block Toppling
- Block Flexure Toppling
Block Toppling
The Block Toppling method is based on the popular limit equilibrium method of Goodman and Bray first published in 1976 in the paper, Toppling of Rock Slopes.
Block Flexure Toppling
The Block Flexure Toppling method is based on the limit equilibrium method of Amini, Majdi and Veshadi published in 2012 in the paper, Stability Analysis of Rock Slopes Against Block-Flexure Toppling Failure.