Dynamic failure of deposit slope with different characteristic of soil–bedrock interface

The deposit slope with bedrock in the lower part and loose accumulation in the uppermost layer is widely distributed in the world. The stability of the deposit slope is always the focus of people’s attention. In order to investigate the influence of the interface between bedrock and the overburden layer on dynamic failure behaviour, critical failure acceleration and failure mechanism of deposit slopes with bedrock, a shaking table model test was conducted in this study. Experimental results show that there exist three failure modes of deposit slope, i.e. local slip failure, transitional local-overall slip failure and overall slip failure. The failure mode and critical failure acceleration of slope are influenced obviously by roughness and interface. The failure critical acceleration progressively decreases, and the slope failure mode also changes from local slip failure to overall slip failure with the increasing interface inclination. However, the slope failure mode shifts from overall slip failure to local slip failure with the increase of interface roughness. The failure critical acceleration is inversely proportional to interface roughness. The transition mechanism of slope failure mode due to variation of roughness and interface inclination was analysed by means of virtual work principle. The volume of soil due to failure in the slope exposed to earthquake is larger than that under static action.