Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

THE EFFECT OF PRE-TENSIONING OF ROCK BOLTS ON THE STABILITY OF ROCK SLOPES

Vahid Hosseinitoudeshki, Mehran Baharvand and Seyyed Amir Hossein Beheshti

Abstract

The effect of pre-tensioning of rock bolts on the stability of rock slopes was investigated. For this purpose, the rock slopes with different dips in jointed schist rocks were modeled using the Phase2 software and their stability were determined using the critical strength reduction factor (SRF) of slopes. In order to stabilizing slopes, the rock bolts with different pre-tensioning force were installed on the slopes. The results show that by increasing pre-tensioning force, the strength reduction factor (SRF) has been increased and the maximum of SRF in each slope is obtained for the optimal amount of pre-tensioning force. Furthermore, by increasing dip of slopes, in many cases, the optimal amount of pre-tensioning in rock bolts has been increased.