• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.9-18
• /
• 2008

Shallow slope failures in residual soil during periods of prolonged infiltration are common in Korea. This study examines an infinite slope analysis to estimate the influence of infiltration on surficial stability of slopes by the limit equilibrium method. Approximate method which is based on the Green-Ampt model have been considered to evaluate the likelihood of shallow slope failure which is induced by a particular rainfall event that accounts for the rainfall intensity and duration for various return periods. Pradel & Raad method which is devised to predict the depth of wetting front to decomposed granite soil slopes having measured soil-water characteristic curves. To compare the results with those obtained from the Pradel & Raad method, a series of numerical analysis using SEEP/W were carried out. It was found that the stability analysis of unsaturated soils calculated by using the soil-water characteristic curve of decomposed granite soils was found to be a proper analysis for shallow slope failures due to rainfall.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2007.09a
• /
• pp.502-513
• /
• 2007

This paper describes the rainfall-induced slope failures caused by infiltration due to prolonged rainfall. The emphasis was on quantifying the effect of fine-grained contents which are influencing on the infiltration rate in the wetting front of initially unsaturated slopes during rainfall. Suction tests by tensiometer were performed for five mixture specimens with varying fine-grained contents and then, numerical analyses for the stability of unsaturated slopes are carried out for different relative densities and mixture portions based on the soil water characteristic curves obtained by GCTS pressure plate. It is shown that the fines are highly influenced on wetting front suction of unsaturated soil slopes. Based on the results, it is found that until 15% fine content is the limit showing different wetting front suction, beyond which the wetting band depth do not affect considerably the stability of unsaturated slopes.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.71-79
• /
• 2006

In Korea, most landslides occurred during the rainy season and had a shallow failure plane parallel to the slope. For these types of rainfall-induced failures, the most important factor triggering slope unstability is decrease in the matric suction of unsaturated soils with increasing saturation depth by rainfall infiltration. The saturation depth was readily estimated using modified Green-Ampt model proposed by Chu et al. (Chu Model) at present. But Chu Model involves some problems for application, because water-redistribution phenomena were not effected. So the modified Chu Model (MCGAM) which reflect water redistribution phono mens was developed. The results showed that the MCGAM had a better agreement with measured volumetric water contents than existing Chu Model.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.331-337
• /
• 2015

A new technique is presented to detect unstable slope behavior, based on Hotelling's T² analysis of pore pressure and water content obtained during flume tests using granitic and gneissic weathered soils. Three sets of pore pressure-water content values were simultaneously obtained during each test, and T² statistics at the 90.0% and 95.0% confidence levels were calculated based on the correlations between values. The results show that unsuccessful detection of some local failures of the flume slope depended on the sensor position. In the case of global slope failures, anomalous behavior was detected between several hundred and several thousand seconds before the event as T² statistics exceeded the confidence interval 90%. Hotelling's T² analysis provides a single control criterion because it enables correlations between diverse measured values within the same slope; the criterion also includes stepwise criteria for a forecasting and warning system based on confidence levels.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.159-169
• /
• 2004

Surface failures of slopes in weathered soil are caused by infiltration due to prolonged rainfall. These failures are mainly triggered by the deepening of the wetting band accompanied by a decrease in suction induced by the infiltrating water. This paper reports trends of rainfall-induced wetting band depth in two types of weathered soils that are commonly found in Korea. Both theoretical and numerical analyses are presented based on the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) obtained using filter paper as well as tensiometer tests. It is found that the magnitude of wetting front suction plays a key role in the stability of slopes in weathered soils. Theoretical analysis based on modified Green and Ampt model tends to underestimate the wetting band depth for typical Korean weathered soils. It was also deduced that for Korean weathered soils, the factor of safety drops rapidly once the wetting band depth of 1.2 m is reached.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.83-91
• /
• 2006

Recently, the intensive rainstorm possibly induced by global warming plays a key role on the instability of railway adjacent slopes. The instability of slopes results as covering and loss of railway lines induced by slided soil mass. According to the site investigation on the failed slopes triggered by rainfall, low types of slope failure were observed: shallow, intermediate, gully erosion, and soil-rock interface failures. The observation reveals the different characteristics of slope failure depending on the thickness of soil layer, morphological features of slope, etc. Based upon the observations, flume tests were conducted to analyze the sliding mechanism of each failure. The variables of flume test are soil layer thickness, rainfall intensity, and morphology of slope under the constant condition of the percentage of fine, initial soil moisture content, slope angle and compaction energy. Test results show that shallow failure was mostly observed from the surface of the slope and caused by the soil erosion; in addition, compared to the other types of failure, the occurrence of initial erosion is late, however, the development of erosion is fast. In gully erosion failure, the collected water from the water catchment area helps erosion of the upper soil layer and transfer of residual corestone, which impedes the erosion process once the upper soil layers are eroded and corestone are exposed. The soil-rock interface failure shows the most fast initial erosion process among the failure types. Interestingly, the common feature observed from the different types of failure was the occurrence of the initial deformation near the toe of slopes which implies the existence of surbsurface flow along the downslope direction.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.29 no.5C
• /
• pp.191-198
• /
• 2009

It has been reported in Korea that surface slope failures in weathered soil are mainly caused by downward infiltration due to rainfall. These failures are triggered by the deepening of the wetting band in soils accompanied by a decrease in matric suction induced by the water infiltration. So, a need exists that these trends of wetting path in gneiss weathered soils, which is commonly found in Korea, are assessed by phenomenological approach. In this paper, numerical analyses of unsaturated soil slope under rainfall conditions are presented based on the wetting path soil-water characteristic curve in the laboratory. As the field SWCC matches well with the wetting path of the laboratory SWCC from the literatures, it seems reasonable to adopt the laboratory wetting SWCC as an upper boundary condition in the assessment of unsaturated slope instability.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.49-59
• /
• 2013

Heavy rainfall intensity may cause shallow slope failures and debris flow by rill erosion and scour on land surface. The paper represents the difference between native soil (weathered soil) and reinforced soil, which is mixed by hardening agent with flyash as main material, for investigating experimental findings of rill erosion and erosion. Results obtained from artificial rainfall simulator show that erosion rate of reinforced soil mixed with hardening agent is reduced by 20% because an amount of eroded soil on slope surface is inversely proportional to the increase of soil strength. For example, rainfall of 45mm (at the elapsed time of 25mins in rainfall intensity of 110mm/hr) triggers rill erosion on native soil surface, but the rill erosion on reinforced soil surface does not even occur at 330mm rainfall (at the elapsed time of 3hrs in rainfall intensity of 110mm/hr). As a result of slope stability analysis, it was found that the construction method for reinforced soil surface would be more economical, easy and fast construction technology than conventional reinforcement method.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.21 no.8
• /
• pp.45-53
• /
• 2005

Shallow slope failures in residual soil during periods of prolonged infiltration are common over the world. Therefore, this study examines an approximate method to estimate the influence of infiltration on surficial stability of slopes by one-dimensional infiltration model. Modified GAML model based on the Green-Ampt model was extended to predict the infiltration behavior of two-layered slope. Then, the model has been considered to evaluate the likelihood of shallow slope failure which is induced by a particular rainfall event that accounts for the rainfall intensity and duration for various return periods in two-layered soil profile. The results obtained from the approximate method were compared with those obtained from numerical analyses. According to the results, with the use of properly estimated input parameters, the proposed method was found to give good results that agree reasonably well to those of the more rigorous finite element analyses.

• Geotechnical Engineering
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.103-118
• /
• 1993

This paper presents the results of investigation of the rainstorm induced landslides occurred in the districts of Yongin, Ansung and Osan on July 21st 1991. More than two thousand and sirs hundred landsilides took place during or after a 3-t hours heavy rainfall and about 466 ha mountain slopes were affected by slope failures. The result of study on the effect of-iainfall on landslides shows that landslides began to occur where daily and maximum hourly rainfall exceeded 114mm and 40mm respectively, and all districts (myun) where maximum hourly rainfall exceeded 62mm were affected by landslides. The morphological study on landslides on Talbongsan area reveals that, by Walker's classi fication using D IL(failure depth ratio), 50% of the landslides were classified as flows, 20% of them as translational slides, and 30% were between flow and slide and there were few rotational slides. Over 90% of landslides tookplace at slopes of 20$^{\circ}$-40$^{\circ}$ in slope and 50m or shorter in length And more than 50% of the crown of slides locates at higher than 0.7 times of slope hight. Any differences between the kinds of tree in landslide resisting effects are shown in this case.