scholarly journals A device for rainfall simulation in geotechnical centrifuges

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shun Wang ◽  
Gregor Idinger

AbstractRainfall-induced slope instabilities are ubiquitous in nature, but simulation of this type of hazards with centrifuge modelling still poses difficulties. In this paper, we introduce a rainfall device for initiating slope failure in a medium-sized centrifuge. This rainfall system is simple, robust and affordable. An array of perforated hoses is placed close above the model slope surface to generate the raindrops. The rainfall intensity depends on the centrifuge acceleration and the flow rate of the water supply, which is controlled by the size and number of the tiny pinholes in the hose walls. The rainfall intensities that are tested range from 2.5–30 mm/h, covering the intensity range of moderate, heavy and torrential rainfall events. Our model test with rainfall-induced slope failure shows that this system is capable of generating relatively uniform rainfall of wide intensities and leads to various patterns of slope failure.

2013 ◽  
Vol 184 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 171-181
Author(s):  
Hugues Georges Rameau ◽  
Claude Prepetit ◽  
Jean-Claude Verbrugge

Abstract Water precipitation in road slopes, pavements, and shoulders may cause disturbances such as erosion, increase of the water table level, decrease of the carriageway bearing capacity, and so on. Roads are normally equiped with drainage systems that are sized and implemented in accordance with the rules of art. These equipments are used for the collection and quick evacuation of water precipitation estimated on the basis of the return period that is taken into account. Despite that, rainwater can still infiltrate unprotected cut or fill slopes, and pavements for repeated and intense rainfalls, which may cause a raise in pore-water pressure and a decrease of the factor of safety of road slopes. Using laboratory rainfall simulation techniques, infiltration measurements were made on intact samples to determine with respect to soil properties, how cumulative rainfalls cause decrease in apparent cohesion and lead to slope failure. This paper focuses on describing the relationship between the rainfall characteristics, the changes in soil water profile, and the changes in apparent cohesion for sandy clay samples collected on the national road RN3 located in Haiti. For a set of consecutive rainfall events at around an interval of 24 hours, the results prove that when wetting front depth approaches 2 meters or more, the risk of landslide is proportionally high in a soil with apparent cohesion (Ca) initially high and an effective cohesion (c′) relatively low.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Shojaei ◽  
Zahra Kalantari ◽  
Jesús Rodrigo-Comino

AbstractSoil degradation due to erosion is a significant worldwide problem at different spatial (from pedon to watershed) and temporal scales. All stages and factors in the erosion process must be detected and evaluated to reduce this environmental issue and protect existing fertile soils and natural ecosystems. Laboratory studies using rainfall simulators allow single factors and interactive effects to be investigated under controlled conditions during extreme rainfall events. In this study, three main factors (rainfall intensity, inclination, and rainfall duration) were assessed to obtain empirical data for modeling water erosion during single rainfall events. Each factor was divided into three levels (− 1, 0, + 1), which were applied in different combinations using a rainfall simulator on beds (6 × 1 m) filled with soil from a study plot located in the arid Sistan region, Iran. The rainfall duration levels tested were 3, 5, and 7 min, the rainfall intensity levels were 30, 60, and 90 mm/h, and the inclination levels were 5, 15, and 25%. The results showed that the highest rainfall intensity tested (90 mm/h) for the longest duration (7 min) caused the highest runoff (62 mm3/s) and soil loss (1580 g/m2/h). Based on the empirical results, a quadratic function was the best mathematical model (R2 = 0.90) for predicting runoff (Q) and soil loss. Single-factor analysis revealed that rainfall intensity was more influential for runoff production than changes in time and inclination, while rainfall duration was the most influential single factor for soil loss. Modeling and three-dimensional depictions of the data revealed that sediment production was high and runoff production lower at the beginning of the experiment, but this trend was reversed over time as the soil became saturated. These results indicate that avoiding the initial stage of erosion is critical, so all soil protection measures should be taken to reduce the impact at this stage. The final stages of erosion appeared too complicated to be modeled, because different factors showed differing effects on erosion.


2010 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 845-866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad Shouquan Cheng ◽  
Guilong Li ◽  
Qian Li ◽  
Heather Auld

Abstract An automated synoptic weather typing and stepwise cumulative logit/nonlinear regression analyses were employed to simulate the occurrence and quantity of daily rainfall events. The synoptic weather typing was developed using principal component analysis, an average linkage clustering procedure, and discriminant function analysis to identify the weather types most likely to be associated with daily rainfall events for the four selected river basins in Ontario. Within-weather-type daily rainfall simulation models comprise a two-step process: (i) cumulative logit regression to predict the occurrence of daily rainfall events, and (ii) using probability of the logit regression, a nonlinear regression procedure to simulate daily rainfall quantities. The rainfall simulation models were validated using an independent dataset, and the results showed that the models were successful at replicating the occurrence and quantity of daily rainfall events. For example, the relative operating characteristics score is greater than 0.97 for rainfall events with daily rainfall ≥10 or ≥25 mm, for both model development and validation. For evaluation of daily rainfall quantity simulation models, four correctness classifications of excellent, good, fair, and poor were defined, based on the difference between daily rainfall observations and model simulations. Across four selected river basins, the percentage of excellent and good simulations for model development ranged from 62% to 84% (of 20 individuals, 16 cases ≥ 70%, 7 cases ≥ 80%); the corresponding percentage for model validation ranged from 50% to 76% (of 20 individuals, 15 cases ≥ 60%, 6 cases ≥ 70%).


2015 ◽  
Vol 744-746 ◽  
pp. 690-694
Author(s):  
Muhammad Rehan Hakro ◽  
Indra Sati Hamonangan Harahap

Rainfall-induced landslides occur in many parts of the world and causing a lot of the damages. For effective prediction of rainfall-induced landslides the comprehensive understanding of the failure process is necessary. Under different soil and hydrological conditions experiments were conducted to investigate and clarify the mechanism of slope failure. The failure in model slope was induced by sprinkling the rainfall on slope composed of sandy soil in small flume. Series of tests were conducted in small scale flume to better understand the failure process in sandy slopes. The moisture content was measured with advanced Imko TDR (Time Domain Reflectrometry) moisture sensors in addition to measurements of pore pressure with piezometers. The moisture content increase rapidly to reach the maximum possible water content in case of higher intensity of rainfall, and higher intensity of the rainfall causes higher erosion as compared to smaller intensity of the rainfall. The controlling factor for rainfall-induced flowslides was density of the slope, rather than intensity of the rainfall and during the flowslide the sudden increase in pore pressure was observed. Higher pore pressure was observed at the toe of the slope as compared to upper part of the slope.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Liang ◽  
Binghui He

<p>Severe soil erosion occurs in southwestern China owing to the large expanses of human disturbance and sloping land. This field monitoring study was conducted during the rainy season to record the rainfall events, runoff, sediment yield, nitrogen, and phosphorous loss in 20-, 40-, and 60-m plots under conditions of artificial disturbance or natural restoration on a 15° slope in the purple soil area of southwestern China. The concentrations and loss amounts of total nitrogen (TN), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) and nitrate-nitrogen (NO<sub>3</sub>-N), total phosphorus (TP), total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) and orthophosphate (PO<sub>4</sub>-P) were comparatively determined. The highest N concentration was observed in long duration and soft rainfall events across all plots. The highest P concentration in artificial disturbed plots was found in long duration and intensive rainfall events while it was recordeds for measured variables were dominantly recorded under the long duration and lowest soft rainfall events in naturally restored plots intensity., while The the highest loss amounts for N and P in different forms for these variablesalmostmostly appeared under high rainfall intensity. Land disturbances differed orthophosphate PO<sub>4</sub>-P concentration in 20--m plot and and loss amounts of of measured variables N and P with different forms across in all plots. Plot lengths differed total dissolved phosphorus TDP concentration in natural restored plot and loss amounts of total dissolved nitrogenTDN and orthophosphate PO<sub>4</sub>-P in artificially disturbed plots. Naturally restoration reduced loss amounts of total nitrogen and total phosphorus by 69.4%62.14-79.05% and 79.28-83.43% TN, 68.8% TDN, 71.2% NH<sub>4</sub>-N, 74.3% NO<sub>3</sub>-N, 81.5% TP, 71.9% TDP and 70.0% PO<sub>4</sub>-P loss amounts comparedrelative to artificial disturbance, respectively. There were significant interrelationships among N and P concentrations in different forms in two land disturbance plots, while nitrate-NO<sub>3</sub>-nitrogenN concentration hadwas significantly negatively negative correlatedion with rainfall intensity and runoff rate in artificialally disturbanceed plots. Rainfall intensity was logarithmically correlated with TN, NO<sub>3</sub>-N concentrations in artificially disturbed plots and with NO<sub>3</sub>-N concentration in naturally restored plots. Runoff rate was logarithmically correlated with TN, TDN and NO<sub>3</sub>-N concentrations in artificially disturbed plots. Our results highlight the effects of land disturbance and plot length on nutrient losses in sloping land.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 4913-4931 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Peres ◽  
A. Cancelliere

Abstract. Assessment of landslide-triggering rainfall thresholds is useful for early warning in prone areas. In this paper, it is shown how stochastic rainfall models and hydrological and slope stability physically based models can be advantageously combined in a Monte Carlo simulation framework to generate virtually unlimited-length synthetic rainfall and related slope stability factor of safety data, exploiting the information contained in observed rainfall records and field-measurements of soil hydraulic and geotechnical parameters. The synthetic data set, dichotomized in triggering and non-triggering rainfall events, is analyzed by receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis to derive stochastic-input physically based thresholds that optimize the trade-off between correct and wrong predictions. Moreover, the specific modeling framework implemented in this work, based on hourly analysis, enables one to analyze the uncertainty related to variability of rainfall intensity within events and to past rainfall (antecedent rainfall). A specific focus is dedicated to the widely used power-law rainfall intensity–duration (I–D) thresholds. Results indicate that variability of intensity during rainfall events influences significantly rainfall intensity and duration associated with landslide triggering. Remarkably, when a time-variable rainfall-rate event is considered, the simulated triggering points may be separated with a very good approximation from the non-triggering ones by a I–D power-law equation, while a representation of rainfall as constant–intensity hyetographs globally leads to non-conservative results. This indicates that the I–D power-law equation is adequate to represent the triggering part due to transient infiltration produced by rainfall events of variable intensity and thus gives a physically based justification for this widely used threshold form, which provides results that are valid when landslide occurrence is mostly due to that part. These conditions are more likely to occur in hillslopes of low specific upslope contributing area, relatively high hydraulic conductivity and high critical wetness ratio. Otherwise, rainfall time history occurring before single rainfall events influences landslide triggering, determining whether a threshold based only on rainfall intensity and duration may be sufficient or it needs to be improved by the introduction of antecedent rainfall variables. Further analyses show that predictability of landslides decreases with soil depth, critical wetness ratio and the increase of vertical basal drainage (leakage) that occurs in the presence of a fractured bedrock.


Soil Research ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Müller ◽  
M. Trolove ◽  
T. K. James ◽  
A. Rahman

Runoff potential of 5 herbicides (acetochlor, atrazine, hexazinone, pendimethalin, and terbuthylazine) was evaluated in a small-scale study under simulated rainfall on a cultivated Hamilton clay loam soil. At 24 h after herbicide application, rainfall events of different intensities were simulated to 0.5-m2 field plots with 20% (70, 88, and 111 mm/h) and 30% (60, 70, and 80 mm/h) slope, respectively. The objective of this study was to compare the behaviour of pesticides covering a range of properties under identical hydrodynamic conditions. Sediment amounts and herbicide concentrations were determined in the runoff samples. As the transported sediment amounts were not sufficient for chemical analyses, herbicide residues attached to sediment were estimated using Kd values determined locally for the soil. Whereas pendimethalin concentrations followed no noticeable pattern, the concentrations for the other herbicides were highest in the first runoff samples, and decreased exponentially with further rain. Results show that herbicides were primarily transported in their dissolved form with the exception of pendimethalin. Slope affected cumulative runoff, sediment, and herbicide losses significantly (P < 0.05). The impact of increased rainfall intensity on runoff initiation followed a similar trend, but herbicide losses from plots exposed to different intensities were not always significant. Losses dissolved in runoff from plots with 20% slope were ≤1% of the applied herbicide, whereas on plots with 30% slope the maximum recorded loss was 65%. Here, losses for all herbicides ranged between 1 and 7% at 60 mm/h and 8 and 65% at 80 mm/h. Exports of herbicides with moderate solubility were negatively correlated with their Kd values and their water solubility.


2016 ◽  
Vol 121 (21) ◽  
pp. 12,856-12,876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shen‐Ming Fu ◽  
Jian‐Hua Sun ◽  
Jian Ling ◽  
Hui‐Jie Wang ◽  
Yuan‐Chun Zhang

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 340-350
Author(s):  
Ngoc Binh Vu ◽  
Truong Thanh Phi ◽  
Thanh Cong Nguyen ◽  
Hong Thinh Phi ◽  
Quy Nhan Pham ◽  
...  

The research aimed to study 24 rock slope surfaces along the road around Hon Lon Island, Kien Hai district, Kien Giang province, Vietnam. The analytical results have determined slope failure, wedge failure, and toppling, which occurred on almost slope surface and the average percentage of plane failure is the largest. The average percent of plane failure is 19.23%, the wedge failure is 15.35%, and the toppling fault is 6.73%. Besides, the analytical results have also identified the slope surfaces which can be the key blocks: ND-13, 18, 23, 25, 34, 37, 45, 51, 62, 63. The other analytical results show that the existence of key blocks at the rock slope surfaces in the N-S direction, dip to E at the survey locations: ND-13, 23, 63 and dip to W at the survey locations: ND-37, 45; in the NE-SW direction, dip to SE at the survey locations: ND-15, 62 and dip to NW at the survey locations: ND-18, 34; in the NW-SE direction, dip to SW at the survey location ND-51. These results have important significance to support for protecting slope surface safety.


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