Progressive failure mechanism of a large bedding slope with a strain-softening interface

2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. J. Hu ◽  
R. D. Shi ◽  
L. N. Zheng ◽  
Q. J. Cai ◽  
L. Q. Du ◽  
...  
2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 1696-1712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Locat ◽  
Serge Leroueil ◽  
Stig Bernander ◽  
Denis Demers ◽  
Hans Petter Jostad ◽  
...  

Observations from past events are used to show that the concept of progressive failure may explain translational progressive landslides and spreads — large landslides occurring in sensitive clays. During progressive failure, the strain-softening behaviour of the soil causes unstable forces to propagate a failure surface further in the slope. Translational progressive landslides generally take place in long, gently inclined slopes. Instability in a steeper upslope area is followed by redistribution of stress, which increases earth pressure further downslope. Passive failure may therefore occur in less-inclined ground, heaving the soil. Spreads are usually trigged by erosion of a deposit having a higher angle near the toe. Instability starts near the toe of the slope and propagates into the deposit, reducing earth pressure. This may lead to the formation of an active failure with dislocation of the deposit into horsts and grabens. The failure mechanism of both types of landslides is controlled by the stresses in the slope and the stress–strain behaviour of the soil. The mechanism presented explains the sensitivity of a slope to minor disturbances and the resulting high retrogressions observed for such landslides in Scandinavia and eastern Canada.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 100529
Author(s):  
Yu Zhao ◽  
Quanmei Gong ◽  
Yaojie Wu ◽  
Zhiyao Tian ◽  
Shunhua Zhou ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 16010
Author(s):  
Benjamin Cerfontaine ◽  
Jonathan Knappett ◽  
Michael Brown ◽  
Aaron Bradshaw

Plate and screw anchors provide a significant uplift capacity and have multiple applications in both onshore and offshore geotechnical engineering. Uplift design methods are mostly based on semi-empirical approaches assuming a failure mechanism, a normal and a shear stress distribution at failure and empirical factors back-calculated against experimental data. However, these design methods are shown to under- or overpredict most of the existing larger scale experimental tests. Numerical FE simulations are undertaken to provide new insight into the failure mechanism and stress distribution which should be considered in anchor design in dense sand. Results show that a conical shallow wedge whose inclination to the vertical direction is equal to the dilation angle is a good approximation of the failure mechanism in sand. This shallow mechanism has been observed in each case for relative embedment ratios (depth/diameter) ranging from 1 to 9. However, the stress distribution varies non-linearly with depth, due to the soil deformability and progressive failure. A sharp peak of normal and shear stress can be identified close to the anchor edge, before a gradual decrease with increasing distance along the shear plane. The peak stress magnitude increases almost linearly with embedment depth at larger relative embedment ratios. Although further research is necessary, these results lay the basis for the development of a new generation of design criteria for determining anchor capacity at the ultimate limiting state.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J. Lobbestael ◽  
Adda Athanasopoulos-Zekkos ◽  
Josh Colley

The effects of progressive failure on flood embankments with underlying thin layers of soft, sensitive soils are investigated. Finite element analysis allows for investigation of strain-softening effects and progressive failure in soft and sensitive soils. However, limit equilibrium methods for slope stability analysis, widely used in industry, cannot capture these effects and may result in unconservative factors of safety. A parametric analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of thin layers of soft sensitive soils on the stability of flood embankments. A flood embankment was modeled using both the limit equilibrium method and the finite element method. The foundation profile was altered to determine the extent to which varying soft and sensitive soils affected the stability of the embankment, with respect to progressive failure. The results from the two methods were compared to determine reduction factors that can be applied towards factors of safety computed using limit equilibrium methods, in order to capture progressive failure.


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongxiang Tang ◽  
Yuhui Guan ◽  
Xue Zhang ◽  
Degao Zou

Purpose This paper aims to develop a finite element analysis strategy, which is suitable for the analysis of progressive failure that occurs in pressure-dependent materials in practical engineering problems. Design/methodology/approach The numerical difficulties stemming from the strain-softening behaviour of the frictional material, which is represented by a non-associated Drucker–Prager material model, is tackled using the Cosserat continuum theory, while the mixed finite element formulation based on Hu–Washizu variational principle is adopted to allow the utilization of low-order finite elements. Findings The effectiveness and robustness of the low-order finite element are verified, and the simulation for a real-world landslide which occurred at the upstream side of Carsington embankment in Derbyshire reconfirms the advantages of the developed elastoplastic Cosserat continuum scheme in capturing the entire progressive failure process when the strain-softening and the non-associated plastic law are involved. Originality/value The permit of using low-order finite elements is of great importance to enhance computational efficiency for analysing large-scale engineering problems. The case study reconfirms the advantages of the developed elastoplastic Cosserat continuum scheme in capturing the entire progressive failure process when the strain-softening and the non-associated plastic law are involved.


Author(s):  
Neharika Rao Ganta ◽  
Neelima Satyam

Globally 30% of landslides occur in the northeastern part of India [1]. One of the major earthquake events in Sikkim, India occurred on 18th September 2011 (Mw 6.9) led to over 300 landslides and 122 human deaths [2]. These landslides not only controlled by natural disasters but initiated due to human activities. The present study considered Lungchok landslide occurred in south district of Sikkim due to 2011 seismic event. The study focused on the failure mechanism of the landslide based on finite element analysis by adopting eight different cases. The deformation characteristic was investigated for dry and saturated slope conditions under static and dynamic behavior considering vehicle loads using GeoStudio software. The FEM analysis has been carried out using load deformation and linear elastic. The analysis shows that the failure of the slope was not sudden due to the 2011 earthquake event, but progressive failure was observed with time and construction activity. The paper demonstrates that, an increase in infrastructure development including construction by hill cutting increased the initiation of landslide with soil erosion. The cracks developed after 2011 earthquake event led to further deformations during future disasters required effective stabilization measures.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangjun Pei ◽  
Shenghua Cui ◽  
Ling Zhu ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
Luguang Luo ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
H. Karadeniz

In order to present an efficient, practical technique to determine progressive failure mechanism of structures, modelling of member deterioration by using a spring system is outlined. The procedure uses updates of member stiffness and mass matrices as well as the random load vector in incremental forms. In this procedure, the assembly process produces redistributions of the system stiffness and mass matrices, and the load vector. In the calculation of response spectral values, the original forms remain unchanged. Inversion of the stiffness matrix is calculated by using the Neumann expansion solution in which the original stiffness matrix is inverted only once so that a considerable computation time is saved in the whole calculation process. An incremental solution technique is presented for spectral analyses of both static and dynamic sensitive structures. In the case of dynamic analysis, special attention is paid to estimations of modified natural frequencies and mode shapes of deteriorated structures, which may affect response spectral values considerably. The technique, which is presented in the paper, is attractive in practical applications and can be efficiently used in the reliability calculation as well, and also it can be successfully used to determine a progressive failure mechanism of the structure.


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