Loading Overview

Various types of loading can be applied to a RocTopple model:

Line Load - A concentrated load that appears as a point load in the 2D View but that actually represents a linear (line) load when considering the out-of-plane dimension of the model. Hence, the units of a line load are force / length where the length dimension is measured along the slope surface perpendicular to the 2D cross-section. Line loads can be added anywhere along the slope face or upper slope, at any angle, on the exposed upper edges of the toppling blocks.

Distributed Load - Can be applied to the slope face and/or upper slope. The units of a distributed load are force / area when considering the out-of-plane dimension of the model. Distributed loads are applied only to the upper edges of toppling blocks corresponding to the slope face and/or upper slope.

Seismic Load - Apply a pseudo-static earthquake forces in the RocTopple limit equilibrium analysis by defining seismic coefficients for the Horizontal and / or Vertical directions. The Seismic Coefficients are dimensionless coefficients that represent the (maximum) earthquake acceleration as a fraction of the acceleration due to gravity. Typical values are in the range of 0.1 to 0.3.

Loading in a Probabilistic Analysis

If you are carrying out a Probabilistic analysis, the loading parameters can be defined as random variables.

Loading in a Sensitivity Analysis

A Sensitivity analysis is useful for determining the effect of individual loading parameters over any range.