Centrifuge Model Simulations of Rainfall-Induced Slope Instability
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 9
Abstract
This study focused on landslides resulting from heavy precipitation, such as rainfall from hurricanes. A series of centrifuge model simulations were performed with reference to a landslide that occurred during Typhoon Nabi in Japan in 2005. The procedures of simulation on the slope using a sand-clay soil mixture were illustrated. The rainfall event was simulated by applying precipitation in increments to the slope surface until it exceeded that of the field measurements. The instability was examined using an infinite slope analysis, and the mechanism of rainfall-induced failure was discussed. For this particular study, the results showed that incremental rainfall of less than 200 mm led to local failures, whereas total accumulation of 400 mm resulted in a global slope failure. A reduction in apparent cohesion in the soil combined with an increase in pore pressure because of infiltration was responsible for the slope instability during rainfall.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This study was performed at Columbia University by Henry Ling (while at Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Hackensack, NJ) from 2009 to 2011 under the supervision of Hoe I. Ling. The study, at different phases of progress, was presented at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair, Siemens Competition, and National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium. The assistance of Dr. Liming Li, the Centrifuge Manager at Columbia University, and communications with Dr. Yukio Nakata of Yamaguchi University, Japan, are greatly appreciated. The three anonymous reviewers, as well as Dov Leshchinsky, offered many useful suggestions that improved the quality of the paper.
References
Baker, R. (2004). “Nonlinear Mohr envelopes based on triaxial data.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 130(5), 498–506.
Fredlund, D. G., Morgenstern, N. R., and Widger, R. A. (1978). “Shear strength of unsaturated soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 15(3), 313–321.
Johnson, K. A., and Sitar, N. (1990). “Hydrologic conditions leading to debris-flow initiation.” Can. Geotech. J., 27(6), 789–801.
Kimura, T., Takemura, J., Suemasa, N., and Hiro-oka, A. (1991). “Failure of fills due to rainfall.” Centrifuge 91, H.-Y. Ko and F. G. McLean, eds., Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 509–516.
Knutson, T. R., and Tuleya, R. E. (2004). “Impact of CO2-induced warming on simulated hurricanes intensity and precipitation: Sensitivity to the choice of climate model and convective parameterization.” J. Clim., 17(18), 3477–3495.
Lambe, T. W., and Whitman, R. V. (1969). Soil mechanics, Wiley, New York.
Ling, H., Ling, H. I., Li, L., and Kawabata, T. (2010). “Centrifuge modeling of slope failures induced by rainfall.” Proc., 7th Int. Conf. on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, S. Springman, J. Laue, and L. Seward, eds., Taylor & Francis Group, London, 1131–1136.
Ling, H. I., Wu, M.-H., Leshchinsky, D., and Leshchinsky, B. (2009). “Centrifuge modeling of slope instability.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 135(6), 758–767.
Moriwaki, H., Inokuchi, T., Hattanji, T., Sassa, K., Ochiai, H., and Wang, G. (2004). “Failure processes in a full-scale landslide experiment using a rainfall simulator.” Landslides, 1(4), 277–288.
Muraleetharan, K. K., and Granger, K. K. (1999). “The use of miniature pore pressure transducers in measuring matric suction in unsaturated soils.” ASTM, Geotechnical Testing J. 22(3), 226–234.
Murata, H., Takekuni, K., and Nakata, Y. (2009). “Slope failure of embankment in Sanyo Expressway due to passage of Typhoon No. 14 in 2005.” Soil Found., 49(5), 797–806.
Oouchi, K., Yoshimura, J., Yoshimura, H., Mizuta, R., Kusunoki, S., and Noda, A. (2006). “Tropical cyclone climatology in a global-warming climate as simulated in a 20 km-mesh global atmospheric model: Frequency and wind intensity analyses.” J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn., 84(2), 259–276.
Schofield, A. N. (1998). “The Mohr Coulomb error correction.” Colloque, mecanique et geotechnique, jubile scientifique de Pierre Habib, M. P. Luong, ed., LMS Ecole Polytechnique, Paris.
Schuster, R. L., and Highland, L. M. (2001). US Geological Survey open-file report: Socioeconomic and environmental impacts of landslides in the western hemisphere, Vol. 01-0276. 〈http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/ofr-01-0276〉 (Jun. 15, 2012).
Sidle, R. C., and Ochiai, H. (2006). Landslides: Processes, prediction, and land use, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.
Take, W. A., and Bolton, M. D. (2002). “An atmospheric chamber for the investigation of the effect of seasonal moisture changes on clay slopes.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Physical Modeling in Geotechnics, Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 765–770.
Taylor, R. N. (1995). Geotechnical centrifuge technology, Blackie Academic & Professional, Glasgow, U.K.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (1992). Engineering and design-bearing capacity of soils, EM 1110-1-1905, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC.
Webster, P. J., Holland, G. J., Curry, J. A., and Chang, H.-R. (2005). “Changes in tropical cyclone number, duration, and intensity in a warming environment.” Science, 309(5742), 1844–1846.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 26, 2010
Accepted: Dec 1, 2011
Published online: Aug 15, 2012
Published in print: Sep 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.