• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2007.09a
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• pp.502-513
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• 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 Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.101-109
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• 2007

In South Korea, many weathered soil slopes are composed of soil mixtures with certain amount of clay fractions in natural soil deposits. Accordingly, it is very important to analyze that effect of the fines on the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. In this study, five different soil types classified by mixture portion of fines were used and experiment on the soil-water characteristic curve tests (SWCC) using GCTS (Geotechnical Consulting and Testing Systems) pressure plate were performed in order to analyze the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. Based on the infiltration analysis which contains SWCC test result by the SEEP/W, it is shown that the increasing rate of the wetting band depth was decreased as the fines content and the relative density were increased. According to the stability analysis result of the unsaturated soil slopes through the SLOPE/W, it is found that the transition from the wetting band depth to the variation of strength parameters which affect the stability of unsaturated soil slopes appears to occur around $10\sim15%$ of clay contents in the mixtures.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.57-65
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• 2007

Slope collapse occurs mostly at the rainy season or thawing season in Korea. From a engineer point of view, the design criterion in recent of soil slopes during the rainfall have a conservative tendency because a slope stability is evaluated in the condition that ground water level is located in the surface. However, for the rational design of soil slopes during rainfall, the raining conditions and the unsaturated soil characteristics of soil slopes have to be considered. For the unsaturated soil characteristics of soil slopes, the laboratory tests for unsaturated soils and the seepage analyses for the raining conditions have to be performed. Due to these difficulties, a conservative design of soil slopes in the current design criterion has been carried out. In this paper, therefore, a simple design method is proposed. The method is considered to the unsaturated soil characteristics and the results of seepage analysis without numerical analysis. To verify the suggested design method, it is compared with both analysis results by current design criterion and analysis results based on the seepage analysis. Through the comparative study, it was found that the current design criterion has been excessively conservative. Hence, simple design method in this study was evaluated as the rational design for the soil slopes during rainfall.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.55-65
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• 2009

It has been well known that the infiltration of rainfall causes major surfacial slope failures in Korea. However, the hydrological and mechanical behaviors in unsaturated slopes are somewhat complex. When an analysis on unsaturated slope problems is performed, soil-water characteristics curves (SWCC) are considered as major parameters to apply. Since the weathered soil slopes are layered and stressed by overburden pressures, the response of SWCCs should account for its overburden pressure. To deal with this situation, in this study, laboratory testings were conducted to evaluate the SWCC under various overburden stress. In addition, the unsaturated shear strength was estimated using SWCC. Then the performance of unsaturated weathered soil slopes was evaluated under various conditions after applying the effect of overburden pressure on SWCCs. The results demonstrated that the effect of overburden pressure on SWCC could be substantial and the proper application to analysis is very important to enhance the prediction of slope stability.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.123-136
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• 2002

The infiltration of prolonged rainfall causes shallow slope failures on surficial slopes. Experiments performed on soil-water characteristic curves in weathered soils of three different types(SW, SP, SM) were used to construct a general equation for the soil-water characteristic curve. Based on this, the saturated depth by Green & Ampt model was compared with the results of numerical analyses and the range of application of Green & Ampt model was evaluated. It was found that the saturated depth occurred by infiltration on the surface of slopes has an inf1uence on the surficial stability of slopes md, the stability analysis of unsaturated soils calculated by using the soil-water characteristic curve of weathered soils was found to be a proper analysis for shallow slope failures due to rainfall.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.77-85
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• 2013

Unsaturated slopes experience infiltration during rainfall and become unstable when saturated. On the viewpoint of unsaturated effective stress, as matric suction decreases, both effective stress and shear strength decrease, which declines slope stability consequently. This study is focused on describing effective stress based on suction stress. The actual slope failures are simulated to calculate factors of safety in the field of finite element stress. In the residual soils of Hadong and Pohang, unsaturated properties are evaluated by laboratory tests. For unsaturated slopes, analyses of infiltration, stress and stability were performed to simulate actual failures. Based on unsaturated effective stress principle, the stability of actual slopes could be evaluated successfully. It is verified for the effective stress concept to be applicable to the engineering practice on slope design which considers infiltration by rainfall.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2007.09a
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• pp.481-501
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• 2007

Excessive rainfalls due to climatic changes can trigger an increase in rainfall-induced slope failures that pose real threats to both lives and properties. Many high slopes in residual soils could stand at a steep angle, but failed during or after rainfall. Commonly, these slopes have a deep groundwater table and negative pore-water pressures in the unsaturated zone above the groundwater table contribute to the shear strength of soil and consequently to factor of safety of the slope. Stability assessment of slope under rainfall requires information on rate of rainwater infiltration in the unsaturated zone and the resulting changes in pore-water pressure and shear strength of soil. This paper describes the application of unsaturated soil mechanics principles and theories in the assessment of rainfall effect on stability of slope through proper characterization of soil properties, measurement of negative pore-water pressures, seepage and slope stability analyses involving unsaturated and saturated soils. Factors controlling the rate of changes in factor of safety during rainfall and a preventive method to minimize infiltration are highlighted in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.123-133
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• 2001

Since most of soil slopes are in an unsaturated state, it is necessary to consider the unsaturated characteristics of soil slopes, in order to obtain more reasonable results. Therefore in this study we supplemented a slope stability analysis program to consider them, based on the concept of limit equilibrium. We also applied an optimization technique to search for a failure surface. Besides, we carried out experiments to obtain the unsaturated soil properties required in the analysis with weathered granite soils. We formulated a nonlinear apparent cohesion relationship with the matrix suction to be able to apply the unsaturated shear strength characteristics to the stability analysis. In addition, we intended to obtain more accurate soil water characteristic curves(SWCC) by measuring the change in volume of the specimen in the SWCC tests. As a result, we could appropriately assess the change of the safety factor according to the rainfall intensity and duration, by considering the variation of suction, permeability, and shear strength caused by the infiltration of rainfall into slopes.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.35-52
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• 2009

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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.28-33
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• 2006

Shallow failures of slopes in weathered soils 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 water infiltration. In this paper, hysteresis on soil-water characteristic curve(SWCC) of granite and gneiss weathered soils are investigated using transient flow analysis respectively. Each case was subjected to artificial rainfall intensities and time duration depending on the laboratory-based drying and wetting processes. The results show that the unsaturated seepage on weathered slopes are very much affected by the initial suction of soils and unsaturated permeability of the soils. In addition, a granite weathered soil has a lower air-entry value, residual matric suction, and wetting front suction and less hysteresis loop than a gneiss weathered soil.