Geomechanics and Engineering

Techno-Press (테크노프레스)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Shear strength characteristics of a compacted soil under infiltration conditions

  • Rahardjo, H. (School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University) ;
  • Meilani, I. (School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University) ;
  • Leong, E.C. (School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University) ;
  • Rezaur, R.B. (Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Petronas)
  • Received : 2008.12.12
  • Accepted : 2009.03.05
  • Published : 2009.03.25
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

A significantly thick zone of steep slopes is commonly encountered above groundwater table and the soils within this zone are unsaturated with negative pore-water pressures (i.e., matric suction). Matric suction contributes significantly to the shear strength of soil and to the factor of safety of unsaturated slopes. However, infiltration during rainfall increases the pore-water pressure in soil resulting in a decrease in the matric suction and the shear strength of the soil. As a result, rainfall infiltration may eventually trigger a slope failure. Therefore, understanding of shear strength characteristics of saturated and unsaturated soils under shearing-infiltration (SI) conditions have direct implications in assessment of slope stability under rainfall conditions. This paper presents results from a series of consolidated drained (CD) and shearing-infiltration (SI) tests. Results show that the failure envelope obtained from the shearing-infiltration tests is independent of the infiltration rate. Failure envelopes obtained from CD and SI tests appear to be similar. For practical purposes the shear strength parameters from the CD tests can be used in stability analyses of slopes under rainfall conditions. The SI tests might be performed to obtain more conservative shear strength parameters and to study the pore-water pressure changes during infiltration.

Keywords

References

  1. Anderson, S.A. and Riemer, M.F. (1995), "Collapse of saturated soil due to reduction in confinement", J. Geotech. Eng., ASCE, 121(2), 216-220. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410(1995)121:2(216)
  2. Anderson, S.A. and Sitar, N. (1995), "Analysis of rainfall-induced debris flows", J. Geotech. Eng., ASCE, 21(7), 544-552.
  3. ASTM. (1997), "Annual Book of ASTM Standards", American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Philadelphia, PA. Vol. 04.08-04.09.
  4. Brand, E.W. (1981), "Some thoughts on rain-induced slope failures", Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Stockholm, 3, 373-376.
  5. Brand, E.W., Premchitt, J. and Philipson, H.B. (1984), "Relationship between rainfall and landslides in Hong Kong", Proceeding of the 4th International Symposium on Landslides, Toronto, Canada, 377-384.
  6. Brenner, R.P., Tan, H.K. and Brand, E.W. (1985), "Field stress path simulation of slope failure", Proceedings of the 11th International Conference of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, San Francisco, 2, 991-996.
  7. Fredlund, D.G. and Rahardjo, H. (1993), Soil Mechanics for Unsaturated Soils, John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York.
  8. Han, K.K. (1997), "Effect of hysteresis, infiltration and tensile stress on the strength of an unsaturated soil", Ph.D. Thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
  9. Head, K.H. (1986), Manual of Soil Laboratory Testing, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 3, 942-945.
  10. Hilf, J.W. (1956), "An investigation of pore-water pressure in compacted cohesive soils", Ph.D. Thesis, Tech. Memo. No. 654, U.S. Dep. of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Design and Construction Div., Denver, C.O.
  11. Lim, T.T., Rahardjo, H., Chang, M.F. and Fredlund, D.G. (1996), "Effect of rainfall on matric suctions in a residual soil slope", Can. Geotech. J., 33, 618-628. https://doi.org/10.1139/t96-087
  12. Meilani, I., Rahardjo, H. and Leong, E.C. (2005), "Pore-water Pressure and water volume change of an unsaturated soil under infiltration conditions", Can. Geotech. J., 42(6), 1509-1531. https://doi.org/10.1139/t05-066
  13. Meilani, I., Rahardjo, H., Leong, E.C. and Fredlund, D.G. (2002), "Mini suction probe for matric suction measurement", Can. Geotech. J., 39(6), 1427-1432. https://doi.org/10.1139/t02-101
  14. Melinda, F. (1998), "Shear strength of a compacted residual soil from unsaturated direct shear tests", M. Engg. Thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
  15. Melinda, F., Rahardjo, H., Han, K.K. and Leong, E.C. (2004), "Shear strength of compacted soil under infiltration condition", J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 130(8), 807-817. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(2004)130:8(807)
  16. Ng, C.W.W. and Chiu, A.C.F. (2001), "Behavior of a loosely compacted unsaturated volcanic soil", J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., ASCE, 127(12), 1027-1036. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(2001)127:12(1027)
  17. Ng, C.W.W. and Chiu, A.C.F. (2003), "Laboratory study of loose saturated and unsaturated decomposed granitic soil", J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., ASCE, 129(6), 550-559. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(2003)129:6(550)
  18. Rahardjo, H., Li, X.W., Toll, D.G. and Leong, E.C. (2001), "The effect of antecedent rainfall on slope stability", Geotech. Geol. Eng., 19, 371-399. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013129725263
  19. Sasitharan, S., Robertson, P.K., Sego, D.C. and Morgenstern, N.R. (1993), "Collapse behaviour of sand", Can. Geotech. J., 30(4), 569-577 https://doi.org/10.1139/t93-049
  20. Toll, D.G. (1999), A data acquisition and control system for geotechnical testing, In: B. Kumar and B.H.V. Topping (eds.) Developments in Civil and Structural Engineering, Edinburgh Computing, Civil-Comp Press, 237-242.
  21. Wei, J., Heng, Y.S., Chow, W.C. and Chong, M.K. (1991), "Landslides at Bukit Batok Sports Complex", Proceeding of the 9th Asia Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. Bangkok, Thailand, Balkema, Rotterdam, 445-448.
  22. Wong, J.C., Rahardjo, H., Toll. D.G. and Leong, E.C. (2001), "Modified triaxial apparatus for shearinginfiltration test", Geotech. Test. J., 24(4), 370-380. https://doi.org/10.1520/GTJ11134J
  23. Yoshida, Y., Kuwano, J. and Kuwano, R. (1991), "Rain-induced slope failures caused by reduction in soil strength", Soils Found., 31(4), 187-193. https://doi.org/10.3208/sandf1972.31.4_187

Cited by

  1. Coupled infiltration model of unsaturated porous media for steady rainfall vol.56, pp.6, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2016.11.010
  2. Evaluation of MLP-ANN Training Algorithms for Modeling Soil Pore-Water Pressure Responses to Rainfall vol.18, pp.1, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000599
  3. Experimental study on deformation and strength property of compacted loess vol.11, pp.1, 2016, https://doi.org/10.12989/gae.2016.11.1.161
  4. Real-time unsaturated slope reliability assessment considering variations in monitored matric suction vol.7, pp.4, 2009, https://doi.org/10.12989/sss.2011.7.4.263
  5. Modeling of shallow landslides in an unsaturated soil slope using a coupled model vol.13, pp.2, 2009, https://doi.org/10.12989/gae.2017.13.2.353
  6. Elastoplastic Behavior of Compacted Kaolin under Consolidated Drained and Shearing Infiltration Conditions vol.43, pp.2, 2009, https://doi.org/10.1520/gtj20180218
  7. Advanced Triaxial Tests on Partially Saturated Soils Under Unconfined Conditions vol.18, pp.10, 2009, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-020-00530-7