• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.199-206
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• 2001

Landslides generally occur due to influences of the internal and external factors. Internal factors include ground characteristics, terrain and so on. External factors can also be divided into natural factors such as rainfall, ground water, earthquake and so on, and artificial factors resulting from cutting and embankments. Among these factors, rainfall becomes the most important external factors by means of which landslides occur in Korea. To appropriately deal with tile effects of pore water pressures due to rainfall, the method using the pore water pressure ratio(r$\_$u/) is generally applied in slope stability analysis or the design of slope reinforcements. Since tire value of r,, is in general not constant over the whole cross section, in most slope stability analyses the average values are used with little loss in accuracy. However, determination of the average values of r$\_$u/ to applied in the design is difficult problem. Therefore, in this study, tile average values of r$\_$u/ according to the intensity of rainfall and slope inclination is suggested based on results of the small scaled model tests using the artificial rainfall apparatus. It is found from the model tests that the average values of r$\_$u/ is about 0.07∼0.18(in case of the intensity of rainfall is 50mm/hr.), about 0.10∼0.28(in case of the intensity of rainfall is 100mm/hr.), and about 0.10∼0.33(in case of the intensity of rainfall is 150mm/hr.).

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.475-487
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• 2017

We performed landslide flume tests to analyze characteristics of landslide occurrence and change in the ground materials due to rainfall infiltration. The test apparatus is composed of flume, rainfall simulator, and measurement sensors and landslides were triggered by heavy rainfall (Intensity=200 mm/hr) sprinkled at the above of an artificial slope. The measurement sensors for matric suction and volumetric water content were installed with 3 sets at shallow (GL-0.2 m), middle (GL-0.4 m), and deep depth (GL-0.6 m) in the slope and the tests were performed with in-situ, loose, and dense condition of each weathered soils of granite, gneiss, and mudstone. The analyses show that surface erosion was dominant in initial time of the test due to heavy rainfall and then landslides occur following locally happened transverse tension cracks. The characteristics of landslide were both shallow failure because of a spread of wetting front induced by the rainfall infiltration and retrogressive failure. While the matric suction was decreased rapidly without any precursor in the soil saturation, the volumetric water content was increased gradually, reached its maximum value, and then decreased rapidly with landslide.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.283-291
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• 2018

Cracks in soil provide significant preferential pathways for contaminant transport and rainfall infiltration. Water exchange between the soil matrix and crack is crucial to characterize the preferential flow, which is often quantitatively described by a water exchange ratio. The water exchange ratio is defined as the amount of water flowing from the crack into the clay matrix per unit time. Most of the previous studies on the water exchange ratio mainly focused on cracked sandy soils. The water exchange between cracks and clay matrix were rarely studied mainly due to two reasons: (1) Cracks open upon drying and close upon wetting. The deformable cracks lead to a dynamic change in the water exchange ratio. (2) The aperture of desiccation crack in clay is narrow (generally 0.5 mm to 5 mm) which is difficult to model in experiments. This study will investigate the water exchange between a deformable crack and the clay matrix using a newly developed experimental apparatus. An artificial crack with small aperture was first fabricated in clay without disturbing the clay matrix. Water content sensors and suction sensors were instrumented at different places of the cracked clay to monitor the water content and suction changes. Results showed that the water exchange ratio was relatively large at the initial stage and decreased with the increasing water content in clay matrix. The water exchange ratio increased with increasing crack apertures and approached the largest value when the clay was compacted at the water content to the optimal water content. The effective hydraulic conductivity of the crack-clay matrix interface was about one order of magnitude larger than that of saturated soil matrix.