The stability of slopes during and after excavation is always of great conc
ern in the field of rock engineering. One of the structurally controlled mo
des of failure in jointed rock slopes is wedge failure. The limiting equili
brium methods for slopes under various conditions against wedge failure hav
e been previously proposed by several investigators. However, these methods
do not involve dynamic assessments and have not yet been validated by expe
rimental results, In this paper, the tests performed on model wedges under
static and dynamic loading conditions are described and the existing limiti
ng equilibrium methods are extended to take into account dynamic effects. T
he applicability and validity of the presented method are checked through m
odel tests carried out under well controlled conditions and by actual cases
studied by the authors, both in Turkey and Japan.