On the Soil Slope Failure Mechanism Considering the Mutual Effect of Bedrock and Drawdown
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21, Issue 2
Abstract
In reservoirs and embankment areas, frequent water-level fluctuations, especially water drawdowns, often produce instability problems or landslides in the slopes overlying bedrocks. A series of centrifuge model tests were conducted on three slopes overlying bedrocks with different shapes and a slope without the bedrock under drawdown conditions. Full-field displacement of the slopes was obtained for analyses using an image-based system during the tests. The slip surfaces of the slopes overlying bedrocks all emerge at the top of the slopes and then extend to the bottom under drawdown conditions. The slip surface of the slope without the bedrock is the bounding surface for those slopes overlying bedrocks under drawdown conditions. The drawdown-induced deformation area of the slopes is first restricted to a certain range and then gradually expands during drawdown and finally stabilizes. The coupling development of the deformation localization and local failure during drawdown illustrates the progressive failure mechanism of the slope overlying the bedrock. Different shapes of the bedrocks would change the deformation localization characteristics of the slopes and hence significantly change the failure characteristics of the slopes, such as the slip surface, failure process, and safety limit.
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Acknowledgments
The study is supported by the Open Research Fund Program of the State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering (sklhse-2020-D-03), the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1508503), and the Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program.
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© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 24, 2020
Accepted: Sep 4, 2020
Published online: Nov 19, 2020
Published in print: Feb 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Apr 19, 2021
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