Sensitivity Analysis of Loess Stability to Physical and Mechanical Properties: Assessment Model
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 19, Issue 7
Abstract
Due to their low strength, high compressibility, and collapsibility, loess deposits are susceptible to large deformation and landslides during tunneling. An objective, scientific approach to stability assessment is urgently required. To reveal the sensitivity of loess's stability to its physical and mechanical properties and further establish a stability assessment model, the boreholes and monitored settlements of 30 tunnel sections were collected from the tunnel project in Yan'an, China, and analyzed by rough set theory. The results show that the stability of loess deposits during tunneling is more dependent on the strength parameter ϕ (35.295%) than its c (26.471%), and dry density (20.588%) contributes the most to the stability in physical properties, followed by water content (11.764%) and void ratio (5.882%). Then, with the physical and mechanical parameters as the index system, a stability assessment model based on extension theory was established and finally applied to the practical project for verification. This study helps in getting an insightful understanding of loess's stability and provides a reference for future studies and tunnel construction through loess deposits.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
Much of the work presented in this article was supported by the National Natural Science Foundations of China (Grants 51379112, 51422904, 40902084, 41772298, and 41877239), State Key Development Program for Basic Research of China (Grant 2013CB036002), and Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grants JQ201513 and ZR2014EEM028). The authors express appreciation to the reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions that helped improve the quality of the article.
References
Bui, D. T., T. A. Tuan, H. Klempe, B. Pradhan, and I. Revhaug. 2016. “Spatial prediction models for shallow landslide hazards: A comparative assessment of the efficacy of support vector machines, artificial neural networks, kernel logistic regression, and logistic model tree.” Landslides 13 (2): 361–378. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-015-0557-6.
Burland, J. B. 1990. “On the compressibility and shear strength of natural clay, Rankine lecture.” Géotechnique 40 (3): 329–378. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1990.40.3.329.
Cai, W. 1998. “Introduction of extenics.” Syst. Eng. Theory Pract. 18 (1): 76–84.
Cai, W. 1999. “The extension theories and their application.” Chin. Sci. Bull. 44 (7): 673–682.
Derbyshire, E., and T. W. Mellors. 1988. “Geological and geotechnical characteristics of some loess and loessic soils from China and Britain: A comparison.” Eng. Geol. 25 (2–4): 135–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-7952(88)90024-5.
Dijkstra, T. A., C. D. F. Rogers, I. J. Smalley, E. Derbyshire, Y. J. Li, and X. M. Meng. 1994. “The loess of north-central China: Geotechnical properties and their relation to slope stability.” Eng. Geol. 36 (3-4): 153–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-7952(94)90001-9.
Feda, J. 1966. “Structural stability of subsident loess soil from Praha-Dejvice.” Eng. Geol. 1 (3): 201–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-7952(66)90032-9.
Feda, J. 1988. “Collapse of loess upon wetting.” Eng. Geol. 25 (2–4): 263–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-7952(88)90031-2.
Gibo, S., S. Nakamura, K. Sasaki, and T. Zhao. 2007. “Shear strength characteristics and destabilization of the Erdaocha landslide, Loess Plateau, China.” J. Jpn. Landslides Soc. 44 (3): 156–161. https://doi.org/10.3313/jls.44.156.
Grzymala-Busse, J. W., and W. Ziarko. 2000. “Data mining and rough set theory.” Commun. ACM 43 (4): 108–109. https://doi.org/10.1145/332051.332082.
Li, P., Y. Zhao, and X. Zhou. 2016. “Displacement characteristics of high-speed railway tunnel construction in loess ground by using multi-step excavation method.” Tunnelling Underground Space Technol. 51: 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2015.10.009.
Li, T., and X. Yang. 2018. “Reliability analysis of tunnel face in broken soft rocks using improved response surface method.” Int. J. Geomech. 18 (5): 04018021. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0001129.
Lin, Z. G., and S. J. Wang. 1988. “Collapsibility and deformation characteristics of deep-seated loess in China.” Eng. Geol. 25 (2–4): 271–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-7952(88)90032-4.
Liu, Z., F. Liu, F. Ma, M. Wang, X. Bai, Y. Zheng, H. Yin, and G. Zhang. 2016. “Collapsibility, composition, and microstructure of loess in China.” Can. Geotech. J. 53 (4): 673–686. https://doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2015-0285.
Lutenegger, A. J., and G. R. Hallberg. 1988. “Stability of loess.” Eng. Geol. 25 (2–4): 247–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-7952(88)90030-0.
Moosavi, V., and Y. Niazi. 2016. “Development of hybrid wavelet packet-statistical models (WP-SM) for landslide susceptibility mapping.” Landslides 13 (1): 97–114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-014-0547-0.
Ng, C. W. W., Y. Hong. G. B. Liu, and T. Liu. 2012. “Ground deformations and soil–structure interaction of a multi-propped excavation in Shanghai soft clays.” Géotechnique 62 (10): 907–921. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.10.P.072.
Pawlak, Z. 1982. “Rough set.” Int. J. Comput. Inf. Sci. 11 (5): 341–356. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01001956.
Pawlak, Z. 1998. “Rough set theory and its applications to data analysis.” Cybern. Syst. 29 (7): 661–688. https://doi.org/10.1080/019697298125470.
Peng, L., S. Xu, J. Hou, and J. Peng. 2015. “Quantitative risk analysis for landslides: The case of the Three Gorges area, China.” Landslides 12 (5): 943–960. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-014-0518-5.
Reznik, Y. M. 2007. “Influence of physical properties on deformation characteristics of collapsible soils.” Eng. Geol. 92 (1–2): 27–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2007.03.001.
SAC (Standardization Administration of China, Ministry of Water Resources). 1999. Standard for soil test method. [In Chinese.] GB/T50123-1999. Beijing: China Planning.
Sharifzadeh, M., F. Kolivand, M. Ghorbani, and S. Yasrobi. 2013. “Design of sequential excavation method for large span urban tunnels in soft ground—Niayesh tunnel.” Tunnelling Underground Space Technol. 35: 178–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2013.01.002.
Sun, P., J. B. Peng, L. W. Chen, Y. P. Yin, and S. R. Wu. 2009. “Weak tensile characteristics of loess in China—An important reason for ground fissures.” Eng. Geol. 108 (1–2): 153–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2009.05.014.
Wan, S., T. C. Lei, P. C. Huang, and T. Y. Chou. 2008. “The knowledge rules of debris flow event: A case study for investigation Chen Yu Lan River, Taiwan.” Eng. Geol. 98 (3–4): 102–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2008.01.009.
Wang, M., X. Xu, J. Li, J. Jin, and F. Shen. 2015. “A novel model of set pair analysis coupled with extenics for evaluation of surrounding rock stability.” Math. Prob. Eng. 2015 (1): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/892549.
Witten, I. H., and E. Frank. 2005. Data mining: Practical machine learning tools and techniques with Java implementations. San Diego, CA: Academic.
Xue, Y., Z. Li, S. Li, D. Qiu, Y. Tao, L. Wang, W. Yang, and K. Zhang. 2017. “Prediction of rock burst in underground caverns based on rough set and extensible comprehensive evaluation.” Bull. Eng. Geol. Environ. (2017): 1–13.
Xue, Y., X. Zhang, S. Li, D. Qiu, M. Su, L. Li, Z. Li, and Y. Tao. 2018. “Analysis of factors influencing tunnel deformation in loess deposits by data mining: A deformation prediction model.” Eng. Geol. 232: 94–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.11.014.
Zhang, J., D. R. Gurung, R. Liu, M. S. R. Murthy, and F. Su. 2015. “Abe Barek landslide and landslide susceptibility assessment in Badakhshan province, Afghanistan.” Landslides 12 (3): 597–609. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-015-0558-5.
Zhang, Q., Q. Xie, and G. Wang. 2016. “A survey on rough set theory and its applications.” CAAI Trans. Intell. Technol. 1 (4): 323–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trit.2016.11.001.
Zhao, B., W. Y. Xu, G. L. Liang, and Y. D. Meng. 2015. “Stability evaluation model for high rock slope based on element extension theory.” Bull. Eng. Geol. Environ. 74 (2): 301–314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-014-0615-7.
Zhao, Y., G. Li, and Y. Yu. 2011. Engineering of loess tunnel. [In Chinese.] Beijing: China Railway.
Ziegel, E. R. 2005. “Discovering knowledge in data/next generation of data-mining applications.” Technometrics 47 (4): 528–529.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 19 • Issue 7 • July 2019
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 27, 2018
Accepted: Oct 26, 2018
Published online: May 3, 2019
Published in print: Jul 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Oct 3, 2019
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.