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Different failure modes during fracture shearing have been introduced including normal dilation or sliding, asperity cut-off and degradation. Attempts have been made to study these mechanisms using analytical, experimental and numerical methods. However, the majority of the existing models simplify the problem, which leads to unrealistic results. With this in mind, the aim of this paper is to simulate the mechanical behaviour of synthetic and rock fracture profiles during direct shear tests by using the two-dimensional particle flow computer code PFC2D. Correlations between the simulated peak shear strength and the fracture roughness parameter D R1 recently proposed by Rasouli and Harrison ( 2010 ) are developed. Shear test simulations are carried out with PFC2D and the effects of the geometrical features as well as the model micro-properties on the fracture shear behaviour are studied. The shear strength and asperity degradation processes of synthetic profiles including triangular, sinusoidal and randomly generated profiles are analysed. Different failure modes including asperity sliding, cut-off, and asperity degradation are explicitly observed and compared with the available models. The D R1 parameter is applied to the analysis of synthetic and rock fracture profiles. Accordingly, correlations are developed between D R1 and the peak shear strength obtained from simulations and by using analytical solutions. The results are shown to be in good agreement with the basic understanding of rock fracture shear behaviour and asperity contact degradation.

The Vajont Landslide occurred on 9 October 1963 at 10.39 pm in Italy, in the Dolomites of Friuli, on the borders of the Veneto Region and about 100 km north of Venice. A mass of approximately 270300 million m3 of rock and debris collapsed into the reservoir generating a wave that over-topped the 261.6 m high double curved arch dam built across a V-shaped gorge.

Issue Title: Special Issue: Including Papers on \"Deep-Seated Landslides\"

Issue Title: Special Issue: Including Selected Papers from the 47th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium, San Francisco, June 23-26, 2013