TECHNICAL NOTES
May 30, 2009

Field Infiltration Characteristics of Natural Rainfall in Compacted Roadside Slopes

Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 1

Abstract

Wetting depth in a slope is an important indicator to properly evaluate the rainfall-induced slope instability. This rainfall infiltration has potential to induce shallow slope failures. It is necessary to characterize the field infiltration and movement of the wetting front due to a natural rainfall. To monitor important infiltration characteristics of a field slope, a compacted roadside slope in an express highway (South Korea) was instrumented to measure variations of matric suction and water content. The monitored variations of matric suction and water content in vegetated and nonvegetated areas are discussed. The pattern of field infiltration by severe rainfall storms is also compared with the estimation results obtained by widely used 1D infiltration models. The Chu model, by considering the ponding and run-off at each time interval, showed a good agreement with the field measurements.

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Acknowledgments

The research reported in this paper was supported by UNSPECIFIEDSmart Infra-Structure Technology Center (Engineering Research Center) under the sponsorship of KOSEF (Korea Science and Engineering Foundation) and 2004 Construction Core-Technology Development Project sponsored by KICTTEP under Ministry of Construction and Transportation.

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Go to Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136Issue 1January 2010
Pages: 248 - 252

History

Received: Aug 21, 2008
Accepted: May 26, 2009
Published online: May 30, 2009
Published in print: Jan 2010

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Authors

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Ph.D.
Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea. E-mail: [email protected]
Seung Rae Lee, M.ASCE [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]

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