The role of ice filled cracks on rock slope stability – a laboratory study

SupervisorDr. Florian AmannDr. Kerry Leith

Y. Bonanomi, Piz Cengalo

Piz Kesch, Winter 2014, 150 000m3

M. Phillips, SLF

Ice filled cracks, Piz Kesch

Piz Kesch, Winter 2014, 150 000m3

M. Phillips, SLF

M. Phillips, SLF

Piz Kesch, Winter 2014, 150 000m3

3100m, 110m rock tower

Ice filled cracks, Piz Cengalo Piz Cengalo, 27.12 2011, 2-4 mio. m3

M. Phillips, SLF

Y. Bonanomi

3150m

KT-E

KT-W

Crack with ice

Crack without ice

Lanfranchi 2012

Some thoughts….Wegmann & Gudmundsson 1999, Jungfraujoch

Duca 2013

FOS = Driving Forces f(time)

Resisting Forces f(time)

Felder 2015

Petrovic, 2003

Tensile Strength

UCS

Loss of resistance due to warming

Increasing driving forces due to ice segregation or ice wedging (i.e. cryogenic suction; water reservoir)

Laboratory experiments Felder 2015