Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference 2025 (RIC 2025)

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Determination of Slope Excavation Rate Considering Pore Pressure Dissipation Through Back-Analysis

Authors
Lucas Guimarães de Carvalho1, *, Thiago Cruz Bretas2, Gabriel Mendes Cabral3, Ariadne Martins da Silva4, João Vitor Oliveira5, Thales Furtado Cota6
1Geotechnical Engineer, Rocscience, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
2Geotechnical Engineer, Director at TBretas Consulting, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
3Geotechnical Engineer, TBretas Consulting, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
4Geotechnical Engineer, TBretas Consulting, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
5Geotechnical Intern, TBretas Consulting, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
6Geotechnical Intern, TBretas Consulting, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
*Corresponding author. Email: lucas.guimaraes@rocscience.com
Corresponding Author
Lucas Guimarães de Carvalho
Available Online 7 December 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_47How to use a DOI?
Keywords
back-analyses; excavation; FEM
Abstract

In engineering projects involving excavations, determining the execution speed can become essential in assessing stability and, consequently, local safety conditions. This is due to the presence of high pore pressures in the soil mass, associated with hydrogeological recharge. To make the construction sequence safer, the installation of deep sub-horizontal drains is of utmost importance, as the water table must be lowered while the soil mass is excavated. However, depending on the local soil permeability characteristics, the excavation speed cannot exceed the soil mass’s capacity to drain the water retained in the soil pores, which could lead to instability. In this case study, pore pressure dissipation conditions were evaluated to determine the safest excavation speed through back-analyses. The project in question involves the extensive shaping of cut slopes for the construction of a mineral loading terminal. By inserting deep drains into the evaluated slope, stability analyses using the finite element method were carried out, coupled with transient flow analysis, to determine the variation of the factor of safety over time, using the RS2 software. The results obtained from numerical modeling, calibrated by back-analysis in the region, allowed the determination of the safest conditions for the geometric shaping of the slopes.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference 2025 (RIC 2025)
Series
Atlantis Highlights in Engineering
Publication Date
7 December 2025
ISBN
978-94-6463-900-1
ISSN
2589-4943
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_47How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Lucas Guimarães de Carvalho
AU  - Thiago Cruz Bretas
AU  - Gabriel Mendes Cabral
AU  - Ariadne Martins da Silva
AU  - João Vitor Oliveira
AU  - Thales Furtado Cota
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/07
TI  - Determination of Slope Excavation Rate Considering Pore Pressure Dissipation Through Back-Analysis
BT  - Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference 2025 (RIC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 472
EP  - 480
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_47
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_47
ID  - deCarvalho2025
ER  -