1 Introduction

Geological hazards are a widely concerned issue in geotechnical engineering (Chen et al. 2014). Among them, Landslide is one of the main disasters affecting the safety of slope engineering in mines, hydropower and transportation (Kumar et al. 2017; Sah et al. 2018; Mikroutsikos et al. 2021; Chen et al. 2021a, b). Because of its wide range, high risk and destructiveness (Igwe 2015; Wang et al. 2016; Martino et al. 2018; Aaron et al. 2020), the study of landslide failure mechanism and treatment method is the focus of scholars at home and abroad.

Many landslides have been reported in the literature, which are mainly affected by geology, rainfall, earthquake, groundwater and human activities, etc. Due to the complexity of engineering geological conditions and the uncertainty of slip surface positions, it has had a huge impact on the study of landslide mechanisms (Chen et al. 2020; Chen et al. 2021a, b). Among them, rainfall and earthquake are the main factors of landslide. There are many typical landslides induced by rainfall, such as Jiweishan landslide in Wulong, Chongqing (Xu et al. 2010), Guanling landslide in Guizhou (Xing et al. 2015), Sucun landslide in Lishui, Zhejiang (Ouyang et al. 2018), two landslides in Emei, Sichuan (Ma et al. 2018), and a bedding landslide in Libo, Guizhou (Zhao et al. 2019). There are also typical landslides induced by earthquake, such as those induced by Wenchuan M8.0 earthquake in 2008 (Tang et al. 2009), Lushan M7.0 earthquake in 2013 (Yang et al. 2015) and Kaikoura M7.8 earthquake in 2016 (Corinne et al. 2022). At present, for the bedding high slope with gently-inclined weak interlayer, the relationship between landslide failure mechanism and rainfall, mining activities, earthquake and other factors has not been fully clarified, which needs further study.

It is also a major problem to be solved in the field and research to adopt reasonable methods for landslide treatment (Li et al. 2012; Zou et al. 2020). Current schemes for landslide treatment mainly include interception drainage (Sun et al. 2019; Cojean et al. 2011), anti-slide piles, and anti-slide retaining walls (Liu et al. 2018, 2020). Among them, interception drainage can reduce sliding force of a sliding body and reduce landslide disaster, but these technical solutions cannot fundamentally realize landslide control. The schemes of anti-slide pile and anti-slide retaining wall can effectively control the landslide, but these schemes are prone to lead to material consumption and huge investment. Especially in treatment of landslide in mines, due to continuous excavation and advancement of slope in mine, the schemes of anti-slide piles and anti-slide retaining walls gradually lose their roles in mining process. For complex mine landslide treatment, it is necessary to propose safe and efficient landslide treatment methods in combination with the field conditions.

In this paper, the deformation history of Laoyingzui landslide was analyzed in detail. Based on the field investigation results, the failure mechanism of the landslide was studied. A reasonable and efficient landslide treatment method was proposed. And the stability of the slope after treatment based on the monitoring data was analyzed, which verified the reliability of the landslide treatment method.

2 Study area

On January 5, 2019, at approximately 6:00 (UTC +8), Laoyingzui landslide occurred in Huangshan Limestone Mine, Emei City, Sichuan Province, China (Fig. 1a). The landslide volume was about 250,000 m3. The original mining bench was seriously damaged, and the mine road was driven by the landslide, resulting in a wide range of tensile-shear damage (Fig. 1b, c), which seriously threatened the safety of personnel and equipment and the progress of mining production.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Overview of Laoyinzui Landslide. a The aerial view of the landslide, b, e Damaged back edge of the landslide, c, f tension cracks on both sides of the back edge of the landslide, d the location of Laoyinzui landslide, g the leading edge image of the landslide, h, i damaged road images

2.1 Geomorphological features

Laoyingzui landslide is located in the middle of Huangshan Limestone Mine in Mountain, Emeishan City, Sichuan Province, China (Fig. 1d), in the low mountain to low middle mountain section at the edge of Sichuan Basin. The overall terrain is high in the southwest and low in the northeast.

Five main distinguished geomorphological features are present in the research area. Firstly, there is a high voltage transmission tower at an elevation of + 925 m above the landslide, which is only 36 m away from the back edge of the landslide (Fig. 1a). The stability of the high voltage transmission tower is critical to the power transmission safety of the State Grid Corporation of China. Secondly, the crushing station is located below the site (Fig. 2a), which is an important structure of the mine. Thirdly, the surface of the site is exposed due to open-pit mining (Fig. 1a), and the overlying limestone is poor in integrity, which is conducive to rainfall infiltration. Fourthly, the tension cracks at the back edge of the landslide (Fig. 2b, c) provide favorable conditions for rainfall infiltration. Finally, the leading edge of the landslide has a large free space (Fig. 2a), which provides boundary conditions for the formation of the landslide.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Engineering geology of the Laoyingzui landslide area. a Engineering geological map, b, c tension cracks caused by early deformation at the back edge of landslide, d distribution of rock mass structural planes investigated on site. It is mainly cut by two sets of joint fissures, and the integrity of rock mass is poor, e, f Karst cave found in field investigation

2.2 Geological characteristics

The stratum within the site is mainly the Permian Maokou group (Yao et al. 2019). The rock mass is limestone with gently-inclined weak interlayer (the dip angle of rock mass is less than 30°) (Fig. 3), which is dark gray thick powder crystal limestone with bioclastic. There are grayish black and grayish brown thin carbonaceous shale in the stratum (Fig. 4). The thickness of weak interlayer is 0.6–1 m, and the thickness of overlying limestone is 2–11 m.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Typical representative profile A-A' before landslide

Fig. 4
figure 4

Weak interlayer

The material composition of weak interlayer was identified based on X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) detection technology, as shown in Fig. 5. The identification results showed that clay mineral is the main material composition with a mean value of 56.49%, followed by the calcite with an average value of 34.12%. Because of its low mechanical strength, poor hydraulic properties and obvious rheological effect (Ma et al. 2021), the stability of the mine slope is seriously threatened.

Fig. 5
figure 5

Mineral composition of weak interlayer

The attitude of the strata is 28°∠26°, and the movement direction of the landslide is 32° (Figs. 2a, 3). Therefore, the landslide can be considered as a gently inclined bedding landslide. The sliding body is the limestone of Permian Maokou Group (P16). There are many joints (Fig. 2d) and karst caves (Fig. 2e, f) developed in the rock mass. The average attitude of joint J1 is 205°∠75°, and the average attitude of joint J2 is 35°∠28°. Well-developed joints and karst caves provide effective seepage channels for rainfall infiltration. The sliding surface is the weak interlayer of carbonaceous shale, and its mineral composition is easy to expand and soften rapidly when encountering water, resulting in the reduction of mechanical properties. The sliding bed is the limestone of Permian Maokou Group (P15), with good rock mass quality.

2.3 Hydrological conditions

The site is subtropical humid monsoon climate with an average annual temperature of 18 °C. In 2018, Sichuan had a lot of heavy rain, with the largest number of storms and average annual rainfall in history. According to the rainfall monitoring results of Emeishan City (Sichuan Provincial Climate Center 2020), the monthly rainfall histogram of Emeishan City is shown in Fig. 6. It could be seen that the annual rainfall in Emeishan City was 2280.9 mm, and the monthly rainfall was mainly concentrated from May to September. From 20:00 on May 21 to 2:00 on May 22, 2018, an extreme heavy rain occurred, with the maximum rainfall of 219 mm in 6 h.

Fig. 6
figure 6

Monthly rainfall from January 2018 to January 2019

2.4 Earthquake

The site is adjacent to the regional tectonic belt of the xikang-yunnan axis in the southwest and the Longmen Mountain folding active belt in the northeast. According to data records (Sun et al. 2010), there have been many earthquakes in history. The 2008 Mw 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake in China caused obvious earthquake sensation on the site surface. According to the division of seismic ground motion parameters zonation map of China (91.120.25), the seismic peak acceleration in this area is divided into 0.10 and the characteristic period of the seismic response spectrum is divided into 0.40.

In 2018, many earthquakes occurred around the site, including the Mw 5.1 Xichang earthquake on October 31, 2018, the Mw 5.7 Xingwen earthquake on December 16, 2018, and the Mw 5.3 Gongxian earthquake on January 3, 2019, which resulted in abrupt changes in slope displacement (Fig. 7) and had adverse effects on slope stability.

Fig. 7
figure 7

Monitoring date of Laoyingzui surface deformation before landslide. a Horizontal displacement, b vertical displacement, c total displacement, d total deformation rate. JC is the monitoring point number

3 Deformation characteristics

3.1 Monitoring data analysis

The location of deformation monitoring points before landslide is shown in Fig. 4, and the deformation monitoring curve is shown in Fig. 7. The monitoring point JC5 (+ 770 m) is newly added in April, 2018. During the whole monitoring period, affected by mining activities (excavation, blasting, etc.), the slope was always in long-term deformation. The deformation mainly occurred above the elevation of + 825 m, and the deformation below the elevation of + 825 m was small. The deformation direction points out of the slope (the direction of landslide, as shown in Fig. 1a), and the displacement vector shows obvious consistency.

From January to early May, 2018, the slope deformation rate was relatively stable, and the horizontal displacement and vertical displacement curves increased linearly, with the total deformation rate within 4 mm/day. After the extremely heavy rain on May 21, 2018, the deformation rate of the slope increased sharply. In particular, the total displacement of the middle and upper parts of the slope (JC1 (+ 897 m), JC2 (+ 897 m), JC3 (+ 824 m)) exceeded 100 mm, and the maximum total deformation rate can reach 15 mm/day. The monitoring point JC5 was destroyed due to a small range of collapses caused by rainfall.

From June 1, 2018 to October 30, 2018, the total deformation rate of the slope was stable, and the horizontal displacement and vertical displacement curves increased approximately in a straight line. The total deformation rate was basically within 3 mm/day. The main factors affecting the slope deformation were mining activities and rainfall. The total deformation rate after rainfall is larger than other times.

On October 31, 2018, Mw 5.1 Xichang earthquake occurred in Sichuan, China. The displacement increased sharply. The total displacement of the middle and upper parts of the slope reached 300 mm, and the maximum total deformation rate reached 20 mm/day.

From November 1, 2018 to December 15, 2018, the total deformation rate was basically within 2 mm/day, and the slope deformation was relatively stable.

On December 16, 2018, Mw 5.7 Xingwen earthquake occurred in Sichuan, China. The slope deformation rate increased again, and the total deformation rate in the middle and uppe part of the slope was between 6 and 9 mm/day.

Finally, under the influence of Mw 5.3 Gongxian earthquake in Sichuan, China and continuous light rain, Laoyingzui landslide occurred at approximately 6:00 (UTC + 8) on January 5, 2019 after long-term creep deformation.

During the whole monitoring, the cumulative total displacement of the lower part of the slope (JC4 (+ 780 m) and JC5) was less than 60 mm. Based on the field survey results, it can be seen that the limestone at the leading edge of the + 725 m elevation was relatively complete, which limited the deformation of the lower slope.

3.2 Deformation history and characteristics

On March 26, 2018, it was found that there was an extension crack near the elevation of + 915 m through site survey (Fig. 2b, c). In order to restrain the slope deformation, a intercepting ditch was built behind the extension crack for drainage, and slope cutting was carried out for load reduction. These two measures had slowed down the deformation of the slope to a certain extent, and the deformation rate of the slope had slightly decreased (Fig. 7d). However, due to the impact of rainfall and mining activities, the slope was always in continuous deformation, as shown in Fig. 7. The hidden danger of landslide had not been fundamentally eliminated.

From 20:00 on May 21 to 2:00 on May 22, 2018, due to the extremely heavy rain (Fig. 6, the maximum rainfall in 6 h was 219 mm), the slope at elevation of + 737 m collapsed in a small range, and the monitoring point JC5 was damaged.

On January 5 2019, large-scale landslides occurred in Laoyingzui area affected by continuous light rain and the Gongxian earthquake in China.

The landslide occurred at an elevation of + 725 m–+ 915 m, with an elevation difference of 190 m, which is characterized by narrow upper part and wide lower part (Fig. 1a). The landslide is 381 m in length and 191 m in width. The sliding body is about 400 m in length and 204 m in width (Fig. 2a). The back edge of the landslide was pulled along the front of the intercepting ditch to form a tension crack with a width of 47 m and a depth of 10 m (Fig. 1b, e). Both sides of the back edge of the landslide were pulled downward (Fig. 1c, f), and the sliding body was separated from the lower bedrock. The sliding body at the leading edge of the landslide had covered the + 685 m platform (Fig. 1g). The roads of the mine were also destroyed due to the landslide (Fig. 1h, i).

4 Deformation and failure mechanism

Based on the field investigation observations, geological characteristics, monitoring data and deformation characteristics, the Laoyingzui landslide was a bedding creep landslide caused by several factors. The failure mechanism was revealed as follows:

Firstly, the weak interlayer was the potential sliding zone of the landslide (Fig. 8). The tensile cracks at the back edge of the landslide and the joints and karst caves of the upper limestone provided convenient conditions for rainwater infiltration (Fig. 2). Under the influence of various factors, especially rainwater, the shear mechanical properties of weak interlayers will significantly decrease. There was a limestone anti-slide rock bridge at the leading edge of the landslide, and the weak interlayer was not exposed. Among them, the anti-slide rock bridge at the elevation of + 825 m and + 725 m was the thinnest, 2 m and 1.1 m respectively (Fig. 3), which could slow down the slope deformation.

Secondly, mining activities were an inducing factor of landslide. Mining activities mainly include excavation and blasting. Excavation led to the redistribution of slope stress, and the back edge tensile cracks continued to expand. Long term blasting had resulted in continuously damage of rock mass, gradually expansion of joints and continuously deterioration of rock mass parameters (Ma et al. 2018). It provided boundary conditions for rainfall infiltration (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8
figure 8

Factors causing Laoyingzhui Landslide

Thirdly, rainfall was the inducing factor of landslide. Rainwater seeped into the weak interlayer along the cracks at the back edge of the landslide, limestone joints and karst caves. With the increase of pore water pressure, the weak interlayer expanded and softened, and then the anti-sliding force of the slope decreased. Rainfall also increased the water content and gravity of upper limestone. The sliding force of the slope increased (Xu et al. 2012; Yu et al. 2022; Zhao et al. 2019; Chen et al. 2021a, b), increasing the possibility of landslide (Fig. 8). For example, the extremely heavy rains on May 21, 2018, which lasted for 6 h, caused the rapid increase of pore water pressure of weak interlayer, resulting in sudden change of slope displacement (Fig. 7).

Finally, earthquake was the triggering factor of landslide. The disturbance of earthquake load reduced the strength of rock mass structure, and the continuous action of dynamic load caused liquefaction failure of rock mass (Xie et al. 2020; Huang and Yao 2021; Zang et al. 2022), which was intuitively shown as the rapid increase of slope displacement. During the long-term deformation of the Laoyinzui slope, three earthquakes occurred in the surrounding area, all of which caused sudden changes in displacement (Fig. 7). The Laoyinzui Landslide occurred after the Gongxian earthquake.

Therefore, the early deformation of Laoyingzui landslide mainly occured at an elevation of + 825 m–+ 915 m, which was the result of long-term creep under the synergistic effect of geological conditions, rainfall, blasting and earthquake. The bedding soft interlayer was the bottom sliding surface of the landslide. Mining activities were the factors that affect the stability of the landslide for a long time. Rainfall and earthquake were the inducing and triggering factors for landslide deformation. Under the combined action of rainfall, earthquake and other factors, the slope continuously deforms along the weak interlayer. After long-term creep deformation, Laoyingzui landslide occurred on January 5, 2019, triggered by the earthquake and light rain for several consecutive days.

The Laoyingzui landslide was divided into two stages. In the first stage, the strength of the rock mass above the elevation of + 825 m decreased sharply due to continuously light rain and earthquake, resulting in the reduction of the anti-sliding force of the weak interlayer. Then, the anti-slide rock bridge was cut off, and a traction landslide occurred along the weak interlayer. The landslide is 381 m in length, and the horizontal distance of sliding body is 38 m (Fig. 9). In the second stage, the rock mass with an elevation of + 725 m–+ 825 m was squeezed by the upper sliding body, and a thrust-type landslide occurred along the weak interlayer. The landslide is 179 m in length (Fig. 9). At the back edge of landslide, the horizontal distance of forward sliding is 65 m. At the leading edge of landslide, the horizontal distance of forward sliding is 86 m. The stability of the sliding body was extremely poor. The landslide had a large volume and a wide range, which belongs to bedding single plane sliding failure.

Fig. 9
figure 9

Section A-A′ of Laoyingzui Landslide

5 Landslide treatment method

After the landslide, the surface of the site was exposed and the rock mass was extremely broken. Under the influence of rainfall in the rainy season and mining activities, the sliding body is likely to restart and a secondary landslide will occur, posing a serious threat to the crushing station and the ore transport road. In order to eliminate hidden dangers in time, landslide treatment needs to be carried out as soon as possible, but the landslide treatment is difficult, and there are still several problems:

  1. 1.

    If the treatment was carried out directly from top to bottom on the sliding body, the safety of personnel and equipment was not guaranteed due to the breakage of the sliding body (Fig. 1a).

  2. 2.

    The high voltage transmission tower was only 36 m away from the back edge of the landslide (Fig. 1a). If the landslide was treated by blasting, it would not only affect the stability of the high voltage transmission tower, but also might cause the temporarily stable sliding body to slide again, threatening the safety of the crushing station, and causing significant potential safety hazards and economic losses to the mine.

  3. 3.

    After the landslide, the mine road and the original steps were destroyed (Fig. 1a, h, i), and the landslide treatment space was narrow.

  4. 4.

    The landslide was controlled by the weak intercalated layer (Fig. 9), the sliding body was broken, and the leading edge of the landslide had a large area of free space (Fig. 2a). Secondary landslide was easy to occur in rainy season, and the treatment time was urgent.

Due to the unique characteristics of open-pit mine slopes that other slopes do not possess, their shape and position will continue to change during the long-term mining process. If anti-slip piles and anti-slip retaining walls are used for landslide treatment, it will lead to the inability to continue mining in the treatment area, affecting the economic benefits and long-term planning of the mine. The interception and drainage measures can only slow down deformation of the slope to a certain extent. If the sliding mass is not completely removed, it will still form the hidden danger of secondary landslides. Because of the complex engineering geological conditions, the high difficulty of treatment, the large amount of treatment engineering and the urgent treatment time, the traditional method cannot fully meet the requirement of treatment. Therefore, based on the deformation characteristics and failure mechanism of Laoyingzui landslide, a new treatment method was proposed as follows:

(1) The hydraulic impact breaker was used to excavate the small-bench on the stable bedrock under the weak interlayer to form working face for risk elimination of landslide.

According to the working range of excavator, the height difference between two adjacent small-benches is 7.5 m, the small-bench inclination is 75°, and the width of the small-bench is 4 m (Fig. 10a). In order to facilitate drainage of accumulated water, the small-bench gradient is 5‰ (Fig. 10b). After the landslide treatment, the small-bench can be used as a small safety platform to buffer and intercept the falling flying rocks.

Fig. 10
figure 10

Schematic diagram of small-bench (unit: m). a Schematic sectional view of small-benches, b Schematic plan view of small-bench

(2) Cleared the sliding body along the stratus strike from west to east.

The working face was perpendicular to the landslide direction. Firstly, the workers used hydraulic impact breaker to excavate the small-bench at the edge of the landslide, and then used excavators to work on the small-bench and gradually moved forward to remove all sliding body within the arm length of the excavator. Finally, sliding body was exposed to form a smooth plate to quickly eliminate the danger.

Figure 11 shows the schematic diagram of landslide cleaned and advanced. Sliding body collapsed along the weak interlayer by its own weight. For the sliding body that formed a temporary stable structure (the angle of sliding body was less than the natural angle of repose), its stable structure was destroyed by the vibration of the excavator bucket, and then it slid to the small-bench by its own weight.

Fig. 11
figure 11

Schematic diagram of landslide cleaned and advanced. a Schematic sectional view of landslide treatment, b schematic plan view of landslide treatment

(3) Transported the sliding body to crushing station or rock dump site.

(4) Repeated steps (1) to (3), and continuously cleaned the sliding body along the working face until landslide treatment was completed.

According to the Safety Regulations for Metal and Nonmetal Mines (GB 16423-2020), after the advancing distance of the working face reached 50 m (Fig. 11b), the next working face started to clean the sliding body. Several working faces were cleaned at the same time to effectively improve the treatment efficiency.

The treatment process of Laoyingzui landslide is shown in Fig. 12. The treatment method is applicable to the bedding high slope of the mine, with high feasibility, safety and treatment efficiency. The Laoyingzui landslide was treated from the root to avoid the possibility of secondary landslide.

Fig. 12
figure 12

The treatment process of Laoyingzui landslide

6 Analysis of slope stability after landslide treatment

The treatment method proposed in this paper was used to treat the landslide. The weak interlayer and sliding body were completely stripped. Nineteen small-benches were formed after the treatment. Monitoring points (as shown in Fig. 3) were set for deformation monitoring after the treatment. Figure 13 showed the monitoring curve after the treatment (two monitoring points JC01 # (+ 905 m) and JC02 # (+ 798 m) were selected for analysis).

Fig. 13
figure 13

Surface deformation monitoring date after treatment. JC is the monitoring point number

It could be seen from Fig. 13 that during the 15 month monitoring, the slope had been in the process of reciprocating deformation, but the overall deformation of the slope was small, and the displacement of the slope was within ± 20 mm. After 15 months of monitoring (March 25, 2021), the displacement of the monitoring was within ± 10 mm. The slope after treatment was disturbed by mining activities, rainfall and other factors, and the displacement fluctuated in a small range, but the displacement vector did not show consistency. The overall deformation of the slope tended to be stable, and the treatment effect was good.

7 Discussion

According to the deformation characteristics and failure mechanism of Laoyingzui landslide, it can be seen that the high slope stability in mine with gently-inclined weak interlayer is affected by various factors, and the slope is in long-term rheological deformation. The main factors affecting the mine slope deformation are rainfall and vibration (Li et al. 2017; Xu et al. 2021; Su and Ma 2022; Liu et al. 2023). The strength parameters of weak interlayer continue to deteriorate under the influence of rainfall and vibration. If quantitative analysis method can be used to measure the damage deterioration degree of rainfall and vibration on weak interlayer, it has better guiding significance for the study of slope failure mechanism and dynamic prevention and control. We are currently conducting laboratory rheological tests, using self-developed multi-field coupling test equipment, to explore the rheological properties of weak interlayers and quantitatively characterize the damage degree of rainfall and blasting to weak interlayer, so as to provide reference for relevant research.

For the control of this type of landslide, combined with the study of the failure mechanism caused by gently-inclined weak interlayers, we believe that it can be controlled from the following three aspects. Firstly, it is necessary to strictly follow the design requirements for open-pit mining (Wang 2011). Secondly, use monitoring methods to monitor slope deformation in real time (Bar and Dixon 2021; Zhang et al. 2022). If abnormal deformation is detected, timely warning should be given and professional personnel should be invited to analyze the causes of the abnormality, in order to design targeted measures in a timely manner based on research results. Thirdly, if a landslide has occurred, reasonable measures should be designed as soon as possible based on the failure mechanism, and landslide treatment should be carried out to avoid causing greater losses.

8 Conclusion

Laoyingzui landslide was a typical bedding creeping landslide with weak interlayer as the bottom sliding surface. This paper introduced the deformation history and landslide characteristics of Laoyingzui landslide in detail, studied the deformation and failure mechanism of the landslide, proposed a treatment method suitable for the landslide, and analyzed the deformation monitoring data of the slope after treatment. The primary conclusions are as follows:

The Laoyingzui landslide occurred by long-term creep under the combined action of rainfall, earthquake and other factors. Among them, the weak interlayer in the stratum was the favorable geological condition, the physical and mechanical effects of rainfall and mining activities on the weak interlayer were the main inducing factors, and the earthquake was the triggering factor, which led the slope to enter the accelerated creep stage rapidly.

The Laoyingzui landslide was divided into two stages. In the first stage, the strength of the rock mass above the elevation of + 825 m decreased sharply due to continuously light rain and earthquake, resulting in the reduction of the anti-sliding force of the weak interlayer. Then, the anti-slide rock bridge was cut off, and a traction landslide occurred along the weak interlayer. In the second stage, the rock mass with an elevation of + 725 m–+ 825 m was squeezed by the upper sliding body, and a thrust-type landslide occurred along the weak interlayer.

A safe and efficient landslide treatment method was proposed. The slope deformation after treatment was in a reciprocating fluctuation state due to the influence of mining activities, but the deformation was small. This method can treat the landslide from the root, and the slope after treatment was stable, indicating that the treatment effect of the method was good.