Our Civil Engineering Seminar of this week will be presented by three
graduate students: Michael Hochscheidt, Karl Krueger, and Tony Oxley.
Dr. Stanley J. Vitton
Slope stability analysis is a major area of research in geotechnical engineering. That being said, very little is written in the geotechnical engineering literature on the design of box-cuts. The goal of this thesis will be to investigate the proper design of a box-cuts, and to design a box-cut for access to an underground copper mine. Issues that need to be considered in the box-cut design include, long term dewatering design, slope stability analysis, and erosion control. The soils at the project site were extremely low permeability, as a result a system of ejectors was designed both to improve the stability of the slopes and prevent flooding. Based on the results of limit equilibrium analysis and finite element analysis, a slope design of two horizontal on one vertical was selection, with a rock fill buttress providing reinforcement. Finally, Michigan DOT standards for seeding were used to provide erosion control.