Stability evaluation and optimal excavated design of rock slope at Antaibao open pit coal mine, China

Rock slope deformation stability for Antaibao open pit coal mine under mining was analyzed using finite difference technique (FLAC3D). Optimal excavated scheme with relatively steeper slope angle of 47° instead of 30° was successfully implemented at the west wall on the geological section 73200 of the mine area, where the three-dimensional (3D) effect of nonlinear large deformation of the slope was taken into account. Physico-mechanical properties of the rock materials were obtained by laboratory tests conducted on samples cored from exploration drilling and rock blocks taken directly from the mine. A nonlinear Mohr–Coulomb material model with a tension cutoff was used in all present simulations. Nonlinear effect on excavated sequence was also discussed. It is demonstrated by dynamical response analysis that the action of earthquake magnitude VII (Richter) upon the relatively steeper excavated slope could not be more than that slope could bear.