Stability of Unsaturated Soil Slopes with Cracks under Steady-Infiltration Conditions
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 19, Issue 6
Abstract
Most classical approaches for evaluating the stability of soil slopes with tension cracks are performed under dry and/or saturated conditions. The suction-induced effect of unsaturated soils is generally neglected in assessing slope stability. This article presents an analytical framework for assessing the stability of unsaturated soil slopes with tension cracks under one-dimensional (1D) steady-infiltration conditions using the limit-analysis method. The boundary-value problem was formulated based on the log-spiral failure mechanism by taking the effects of suction stress, effective unit weight of soil, and tension cracks into account. A simplified method was developed to calculate the external work rate of unsaturated soil weight. Detailed investigations of the effects of suction, Poisson’s ratio, steady infiltration, and water in tension cracks on the slope stability are presented.
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Acknowledgments
This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11672172 and 41630633).
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 19 • Issue 6 • June 2019
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 1, 2018
Accepted: Oct 25, 2018
Published online: Apr 1, 2019
Published in print: Jun 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Sep 1, 2019
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