Abstract
Rainfall-induced landslides can cause loss of life and damage to property, infrastructure, and the environment. Rainfall patterns affect the pore-water pressure of unsaturated soil slopes, and are related to the slopes’ stability. Four rainfall patterns were chosen to represent natural rainfall patterns for an examination of rainfall infiltration into soil slopes using numerical models incorporating coupled water infiltration and deformation in unsaturated soils. Our analysis showed that rainfall patterns play a significant role in the distribution of the pore-water pressure in soil slopes, and influence the slope stability. The pore-water pressure profile of soil slopes and the factor of safety are affected by the ratio of rainfall intensity and the coefficient of permeability. The depth and shape of the shallow sliding plane of the landslide is closely related to the rainfall pattern; moreover, the results showed a correlation between the factor of safety of the slope and the rainfall intensity. This relationship can be described by a dimensionless rainfall intensity. The nonlinear relationship can be used to estimate the slope stability resulting from rainfall infiltration when the hydro-mechanical coupling in unsaturated soil slopes is considered.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ABAQUS Scripting user’s manual (2007) ABAQUS 6.7 HTML documentation/ 6.1 the Abaqus object model. ABAQUS. Inc, Palo Alto
Aleotti P (2004) A warning system for rainfall-induced shallow failures. Eng Geol 73:247–265
Bandara S, Soga K (2015) Coupling of soil deformation and pore fluid flow using material point method. Comput Geotech 63(1):199–214
Bandara S, Ferrari A, Laloui L (2016) Modelling landslides in unsaturated slopes subjected to rainfall infiltration using material point method. Int J Numer Anal Met 40(9):1358–1380
Bishop AW (1959) The principle of effective stress Tecnisk Ukeblad, p 39
Brunetti MT, Peruccacci S, Rossi M, Luciani S, Valigi D, Guzzetti F (2010) Rainfall thresholds for the possible occurrence of landslides in Italy. Nat Hazard Earth Syst Sci 10:447–458
Cai F, Ugai K (2004) Numerical analysis of rainfall effects on slope stability. Int J Geomech 4(2):69–78
Chen RH, Chen HP, Chen KS, Zhung HB (2009) Simulation of a slope failure induced by rainfall infiltration. Environ Geol 58:943–952
Cho SE, Lee SR (2002) Evaluation of surficial stability for homogeneous slopes considering rainfall characteristics. J Geotech Geoenviron 128(9):756–763
Fredlund DG, Rahardjo H (1993) Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils. Wiley, New York
Garcia E, Oka F, Kimoto S (2011) Numerical analysis of a one-dimensional infiltration problem in unsaturated soil by a seepage-deformation coupled method. Int J Numer Anal Met 35(5):544–568
van Genuchten MY (1980) A closed form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J 44:892–898
Griffiths DV, Lane PA (1999) Slope stability analysis by finite elements. Geotechnique 49(3):387–403
Guzzetti F, Peruccacci S, Rossi M, Stark CP (2008) The rainfall intensity–duration control of shallow landslides and debris flows: an update. Landslides 5(1):3–17
Ho L, Fatahi B, Khabbaz H (2014) Analytical solution for one-dimensional consolidation of unsaturated soils using eigenfunction expansion method. Int J Numer Anal Meth Geomech 38:1058–1077
Huang MS, Jia CQ (2009) Strength reduction FEM in stability analysis of soil slopes subjected to transient unsaturated seepage. Comput Geotech 36:93–101
Huang CC, Yuin SC (2010) Experimental investigation of rainfall criteria for shallow slope failures. Geomorphology 120:326–338
Jia GW, Zhan TLT, Chen YM, Fredlund DG (2009) Performance of a large-scale slope model subjected to rising and lowering water levels. Eng Geol 106(1–2):92–103
Kim JM (2000) A fully coupled finite element analysis of water-table fluctuation and land deformation in partially saturated soils due to surface loading. Int J Numer Meth Eng 49:1101–1119
Martelloni G, Segoni S, Fanti R, Catani F (2012) Rainfall thresholds for the forecasting of landslide occurrence at regional scale. Landslides 9(4):485–495
Mualem Y (1976) A new model for predicting the conductivity of unsaturated porous media. Water Resour Res 12:513–522
Ng CWW, Shi Q (1998) A numerical investigation of the stability of unsaturated soil slopes subjected to transient seepage. Comput Geotech 22:1–28
Oka F, Kimot S, Takada N (2010) A seepage-deformation coupled analysis of an unsaturated river embankment using a multiphase elasto-viscoplastic theory. Soils Found 50(4):483–494
Sreedeep S, Singh DN (2006) Nonlinear curve-fitting procedures for developing soil-water characteristic curves. Geotech Test J 29(5):409–418
Tsai TL (2010) Influences of soil water characteristic curve on rainfall-induced shallow landslides. Environ Earth Sci 64(2):449–459
Vallet A, Bertrand C, Mudry J, Bogaard T, Fabbri O, Baudement C, Régent B (2015) Contribution of time-related environmental tracing combined with tracer tests for characterization of a groundwater conceptual model: a case study at the Séchilienne landslide, western Alps (France). Hydrogeol J 23(8):1761–1779
Wang HB, Li JW (2015) Analytical solutions to the one-dimensional coupled seepage and deformation of unsaturated soils with arbitrary nonhomogeneous boundary conditions. Transp Porous Med 108:481–496
Wu LZ, Selvadurai APS (2016) Rainfall infiltration-induced groundwater table rise in an unsaturated porous medium. Environ Earth Sci 75(2):1–11
Wu LZ, Zhang LM (2009) Analytical solution to 1D coupled water infiltration and deformation in unsaturated soils. Int J Numer Anal Met 33(6):773–790
Wu LZ, Zhang LM, Huang RQ (2012) Analytical solution to 1D coupled water infiltration and deformation in two-layer unsaturated soils. Int J Numer Anal Met 36:798–816
Wu LZ, Selvadurai APS, Huang RQ (2013) Two-dimensional coupled hydromechanical modeling of water infiltration into a transversely isotropic unsaturated soil region. Vadose Zone J 12(4):4949–4960
Wu LZ, Huang RQ, Xu Q, Zhang LM, Li HL (2015) Analysis of physical testing of rainfall-induced soil slope failures. Environ Earth Sci 73(12):8519–8531
Wu LZ, Zhang LM, Li X (2016a) One-dimensional coupled infiltration and deformation in unsaturated soils subjected to varying rainfall. Int J Geomech 16(2):06015004
Wu LZ, Selvadurai APS, Zhang LM, Huang RQ, Huang JS (2016b) Poro-mechanical coupling influences on potential for rainfall-induced shallow landslides in unsaturated soils. Adv Water Resour 98:114–121
Wu LZ, Zhou Y, Sun P, Shi JS, Liu GG, Bai LY (2017a) Laboratory characterization of rainfall-induced loess slope failure. Catena 150:1–8
Wu LZ, Zhang LM, Zhou Y, Li BE (2017b) Analysis of multi-phase coupled seepage and stability in anisotropic slopes under rainfall condition. Environmental Earth Sciences 76(14):469
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Creative Research Groups of China (No. 41521002), the Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB733200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41672282), and the fund of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (No. SKLGP2016Z017). The first author thanks the Innovation Team of the Chengdu University of Technology.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wu, L.Z., Xu, Q. & Zhu, J.D. Incorporating hydro-mechanical coupling in an analysis of the effects of rainfall patterns on unsaturated soil slope stability. Arab J Geosci 10, 386 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-017-3147-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-017-3147-1