scholarly journals The Geo-Hydro-Mechanical Properties of a Turbiditic Formation as Internal Factors of Slope Failure Processes

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 429
Author(s):  
Nunzio Losacco ◽  
Osvaldo Bottiglieri ◽  
Francesca Santaloia ◽  
Claudia Vitone ◽  
Federica Cotecchia

Similar to many inner areas of Southern Europe, the Daunia Apennines are affected by widespread landsliding, often consisting of slow, deep-seated movements. Recurrent acceleration of these landslides causes damage to buildings and infrastructures, severely biasing the socio-economic development of the region. Most landslides in the area of study occur within clayey units of turbiditic flysch formations, often severely disturbed by tectonic thrust and previous landsliding. The Faeto Flysch (FAE) is one of the most widespread turbiditic formations in the Daunia Apennines and is representative of the tectonised geological formations involved in slope failure. This work, by examining the landslide processes occurring at four pilot sites, aims at connecting the observed mechanisms to the geo-hydro-mechanical setup of FAE in the slopes. It is found that the soil portion of FAE consists of highly plastic clays, resulting in low intrinsic shear strength, and hence controls the initiation and progression of failure in the slopes, as such representing an internal predisposing factor to landsliding. In addition, the presence of fractured rock strata confers a high permeability at the slope scale, with respect to that of the soil matrix. This results in severe piezometric levels in the slope, which represent another internal predisposing factor to failure, and in the ability to induce significant seasonal pore water pressure oscillations down to great depths, connected to rainfall infiltration, thus triggering the recurrent acceleration of the landslides.

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Sitarenios ◽  
Francesca Casini

This paper presents a three-dimensional slope stability limit equilibrium solution for translational planar failure modes. The proposed solution uses Bishop’s average skeleton stress combined with the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion to describe soil strength evolution under unsaturated conditions while its formulation ensures a natural and smooth transition from the unsaturated to the saturated regime and vice versa. The proposed analytical solution is evaluated by comparing its predictions with the results of the Ruedlingen slope failure experiment. The comparison suggests that, despite its relative simplicity, the analytical solution can capture the experimentally observed behaviour well and highlights the importance of considering lateral resistance together with a realistic interplay between mechanical parameters (cohesion) and hydraulic (pore water pressure) conditions.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2839
Author(s):  
Sinhang Kang ◽  
Seung-Rae Lee ◽  
Sung-Eun Cho

Shallow slope failures occur almost every year during the rainy season. Continuous observation of the meteorological parameters and hydrological characteristics is required to more clearly understand the triggering mechanisms of shallow slope failure. In addition, influential factors, such as type of relative permeability models, air flow, and variation of hydraulic conductivity associated with stress–strain behavior of soil, have significant effects on the actual mechanism of rainfall infiltration. Real-time data including hourly rainfall and pore water pressure in response to rainfall was recorded by devices; then, the change in pore pressure from the devices was compared to the results from the infiltration analysis with applications of three relative permeability models, air flow, and the coupled hydro-mechanical analysis to examine an appropriate site-specific approach to a rainfall infiltration analysis. The infiltration and stability analyses based on the site-specific hydrologic characteristics were utilized to create maps of safety factors that depend on the cumulative rainfall. In regions vulnerable to landslides, rainfall forecast information and safety factor maps built by applying various rainfall scenarios can be useful in preparing countermeasures against disasters during the rainy season.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jihuan Han ◽  
Jiuqun Zou ◽  
Weihao Yang ◽  
Chenchen Hu

With the increase in shaft depth, the problem of cracks and leakage in single-layer concrete lining in porous water-rich stable rock strata has become increasingly clear, in which case the mechanism of fracturing in shaft lining remains unclear. Considering that the increase in pore water pressure can cause rock mass expansion, this paper presents the concept of hydraulic expansion coefficient. First, a cubic model containing spherical pores is established for studying hydraulic expansion, and the ANSYS numerical simulation, a finite element numerical method, was used for calculating the volume change of the model under the pore water pressure. By means of the multivariate nonlinear regression method, the regression equation of the hydraulic expansion coefficient is obtained. Second, based on the hydraulic expansion effect on the rock mass, an interaction model of pore water pressure–porous rock–shaft lining is established and further solved. Consequently, the mechanism of fracturing in shaft lining caused by high-pressure pore water is revealed. The results show that the hydraulic expansion effect on the surrounding rock increases with its porosity and decreases with its elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio; the surrounding rock expansion caused by the change in pore water pressure can result in the outer edge of the lining peeling off from the surrounding rock and tensile fracturing at the inner edge. Therefore, the results have a considerable guiding significance for designing shaft lining through porous water-rich rock strata.


2014 ◽  
Vol 501-504 ◽  
pp. 1927-1931
Author(s):  
Guang Ju Wen ◽  
Wen Jie Deng ◽  
Feng Wen

Based on the characteristics of slope failure induced by rainfall, from the point of view of moisture migration and combining unsaturated soil mechanics, the characteristics of moisture migration in slope under different rainfall intensities were analyzed by finite element method. The results reveal that under rainfall, the pore water pressure in slope is in layered distribution, and at the bottom of slope, the pore water pressure is the highest, the top is lower and the middle is the lowest. The volumetric water content is in nonlinear distribution and the degree of nonlinear in unsaturated area is higher than that of the saturated area. The permeability coefficient of soil rises with the increase of rainfall intensity, and when the soil is saturated, its permeability coefficient is saturate permeability coefficient.


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.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 305-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Dapporto ◽  
P. Aleotti ◽  
N. Casagli ◽  
G. Polloni

Abstract. On 14-16 November 2002 the North Italy was affected by an intense rainfall event: in the Albaredo valley (Valtellina) more than 200 mm of rain fell triggering about 50 shallow landslides, mainly soil slips and soil slip-debris flows. Landslides occurred above the critical rainfall thresholds computed by Cancelli and Nova (1985) and Ceriani et al. (1994) for the Italian Central Alps: in fact the cumulative precipitation at the soil slips initiation time was 230 mm (in two days) with a peak intensity of 15 mm/h. A coupled analysis of seepage and instability mechanisms is performed in order to evaluate the potential for slope failure during the event. Changes in positive and negative pore water pressures during the event are modelled by a finite element analysis of water flow in transient conditions, using as boundary condition for the nodes along the slope surface the recorded rainfall rate. The slope stability analysis is conducted applying the limit equilibrium method, using pore water pressure distributions obtained in the different time steps by the seepage analysis as input data for the calculation of the factor of safety.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Joon-Young Park ◽  
Young-Suk Song

A combined analysis involving a laboratory test and numerical modeling was performed to investigate the hydraulic processes leading to slope failure during rainfall. Through a laboratory landslide test in which artificial rainfall was applied to a homogeneous sandy slope, the timing and configurations of multiple slides were identified. In addition, volumetric water content was measured in real time through the use of monitoring sensors. The measured volumetric water content data were then used to validate the relevance of the numerical modeling results. The validated numerical modeling of the laboratory-scale slope failures provided insight into the hydraulic conditions that trigger landslides. According to the numerical modeling results, the miniaturized slope in the laboratory test was saturated in a manner so that the wetting front initially progresses downward and then the accumulated rainwater at the toe of the slope creates a water table that advances toward the crest. Furthermore, each of the five sequential failures that occurred during this experiment created slip surfaces where the pore-water pressure had achieved full saturation and an excessive pore-water pressure state. The findings of this study are expected to help understand the hydraulic prerequisites of landslide phenomena.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazunari Sako ◽  
◽  
Ryoichi Fukagawa ◽  
Tomoaki Satomi ◽  
◽  
...  

Rainfall-induced slope failure has been responsible for great death and destruction in Japan. This is thus a primary consideration in preserving Japan’s many cultural important temples, palaces, and similar structures, especially in the ancient capital of Kyoto, where many important cultural assets are located on hillsides and near mountains. Our objective is to construct a slope-disaster warning system using real-time field measurement data, in-situ and laboratory testing, and numerical models. We set up field monitoring on a slope behind an important cultural asset in July 2004 to measure pore-water pressure, temperature, and rainfall intensity [1]. We firstly introduce our slope-disaster warning concept and field measurement results for the slope behind the important cultural asset in Kyoto. And then we discuss the relationship of rainfall intensity, seepage behavior, and slope failure based on monitoring data and model test results using a soil box apparatus.


2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 1148-1156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Helinski ◽  
Andy Fourie ◽  
Martin Fahey ◽  
Mostafa Ismail

During the placement of fine-grained cemented mine backfill, the high placement rates and low permeability often result in undrained self-weight loading conditions, when assessed in the conventional manner. However, hydration of the cement in the backfill results in a net volume reduction—the volume of the hydrated cement is less than the combined volume of the cement and water prior to hydration. Though the volume change is small, it occurs in conjunction with the increasing stiffness of the cementing soil matrix, and the result in certain circumstances can be a significant reduction in pore-water pressure as hydration proceeds. In this paper, the implications of this phenomenon in the area of cemented mine backfill are explored. An analytical model is developed to quantify this behaviour under undrained boundary conditions. This model illustrates that the pore-water pressure change is dependent on the amount of volume change associated with the cement hydration, the incremental stiffness change of the soil, and the porosity of the material. Experimental techniques for estimating key characteristics associated with this mechanism are presented. Testing undertaken on two different cement–minefill combinations indicated that the rate of hydration and volumes of water consumed during hydration were unique for each cement–tailings combination, regardless of mix proportions.


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