• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2012

Rainfall infiltration test under one dimensional condition is conducted to evaluate the effect of rainfall intensity on seepage velocity and infiltration characteristics for initial unsaturated sediment. Experimental results are compared with those numerical simulations with respect to variations of pore water pressure, degree of saturation and discharge velocity with time, and both results give good agreement. High rainfall intensity tends to increase seepage velocity almost linearly. But it shows rapid increase as rainfall intensity approaches saturated hydraulic conductivity of the sediment. In addition, the upper part of wetting front depth is partially saturated, not fully. Therefore, actual wetting front depth is considered to advance faster than theoretical prediction, which leads to slope instability of unsaturated slope due to surface rainfall.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.14 no.4 s.41
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• pp.349-360
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• 2004

This study calculated the pore water pressure, the depth of seepage, the constant of the strength in accordance with the slope inclination and the rainfall intensity over the slope built by the weathered granite soil (SP, SM). And, the change of the shear strength in accordance with the rainfall has been compared and analyzed by applying the shear strength formula of the unsaturated soil. As a result, the rainfall intensity is stronger and the slope inclination is gentler the seepage speed in accordance with the rainfall became faster proportionally. As a result of comparing and analyzing both the theoretical value of Lumb and the actual value of the model, it can be said that the actual value is faster. Since SM shows the bigger shear strength than SP, it can also be said that as the granules increase, the coefficient of permeability becomes smaller; and as the seepage rate became smaller, it affects the seepage speed. Likewise, the shear strength within the slope displays the smallest shear strength at the inclination of 1:1.5 the reason of its decrease turned out that it was due to the increase of the pore water pressure.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.343-351
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• 2012

This study proposes a modified equation to calculate the factor of safety for an infinite slope considering the saturation depth ratio as a new variable calculated from rainfall infiltration into unsaturated soil. For the proposed equation, this study introduces the concepts of the saturation depth ratio and subsurface flow depth. Analysis of the factor of safety for an infinite slope is conducted by the sequential calculation of the effective upslope contributing area, subsurface flow depth, and the saturation depth ratio based on quasi-dynamic wetness index theory. The calculation process makes it possible to understand changes in the factor of safety and the infiltration behavior of individual rainfall events. This study analyzes stability changes in an infinite slope, considering the saturation depth ratio of soil, based on the proposed equation and the results of soil column tests performed by Park et al. (2011 a). The analysis results show that changes in the factor of safety are dependent on the saturation depth ratio, which reflects the rainfall infiltration into unsaturated weathered gneiss soil. Under continuous rainfall with intensities of 20 and 50 mm/h, the time taken for the factor of safety to decrease to less than 1.3 was 2.86-5.38 hours and 1.34-2.92 hours, respectively; in the case of repeated rainfall events, the time taken was between 3.27 and 5.61 hours. The results demonstrate that it is possible to understand changes in the factor of safety for an infinite slope dependent on the saturation depth ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2014

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (HC) is integrated theoretically from soil water retention curves (SWRC) by Mualem capillary model, but the prediction of HC is extremely sensitive to small variation of matric suction near saturation. Near saturation, the Mualem HC based on smooth SWRC decreases abruptly and has problems in the reliability of hydraulic behavior and the stability of numerical solutions. To improve van Genuchten-Mualem (VGM) HC, the van Genuchten SWRC model is modified within range of low matric suction (arbitrary air entry pressure). At an arbitrary air entry pressure, the VG SWRC is linearized in log scale until full saturation. The modified VG SWRC does not affect the fit of actual retention behavior and either the parameters of original VG SWRC fit. Using the modified VG SWRC, the VGM HC is modified to integrate for each interval decomposed by arbitrary air entry pressure. An analytical solution on modified VGM HC is proposed each interval, to protect the rapid change in HC near saturation. For silty soils, VGM models of HC function underestimate the unsaturated permeability characteristics and especially show rapid reduction near saturation. The modified VGM model predicts more accurate HC functions for Korean weathered soils. Furthermore, near saturation, the saturated HC is conserved by the modified VGM model. After 2-D infiltration analysis of an actual slope, the hydraulic behaviors are compared for VGM and the modified models. The prediction by the proposed model conserved the convergence of solutions on various rainfall conditions. However, the solution by VGM model did not converge since the conductivity near saturation reduced abruptly for heavy rainfall condition. Using VGM model, the factor of safety is overestimated in both initial and final stage during heavy rainfall. Stability analysis based on infiltration analysis could simulate the actual slope failure by the proposed model on HC.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.53-64
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• 2009

Many slope failures are induced by rainfall infiltration. A lot of recent researches are therefore focused on rainfall-induced slope instability and the rainfall infiltration is recognized as the important triggering factor. The rainfall infiltrates into the soil slope and makes the matric suction lost in the slope and even the positive pore water pressure develops near the surface of the slope. They decrease the resisting shear strength. In Korea, a few public institutions suggested conservative slope design guidelines that assume a fully saturated soil condition. However, this assumption is irrelevant and sometimes soil properties are misused in the slope design method to fulfill the requirement. In this study, a more relevant slope stability evaluation method is suggested to take into account the real rainfall infiltration phenomenon. Unsaturated soil properties such as shear strength, soil-water characteristic curve and permeability for Korean weathered soils were obtained by laboratory tests and also estimated by artificial neural network models. For real-time assessment of slope instability, failure warning criteria of slope based on deterministic and probabilistic analyses were introduced to complement uncertainties of field measurement data. The slope stability evaluation technique can be combined with field measurement data of important factors, such as matric suction and water content, to develop an early warning system for probably unstable slopes due to the rainfall.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.15 no.4 s.42
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• pp.487-494
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• 2005

In order to estimated a reason of soil slope failure new measurement technology is demanded to measure a variation of volumetric water content which is a key physical parameter for understanding the slope failure in the field. In this study a laboratory soil tank test were conducted to use RDB and ADR measurement probes for measuring the variation of volumetric water content. These experiments were compared with two physical parameters as volumetric water content and pressure water head which are estimated to the compacted weathered granite soil under the artificial rainfall, 7.5mm/hour, in the whole of two stages. From the results the variation of volumetric water content and pressure water head is represented to nearly similar travel time.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.5-18
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• 2014

Many regions around the world are vulnerable to rainfall-induced slope failures. A variety of methods have been proposed for revealing the mechanism of slope failure initiation. Current analysis methods, however, do not consider the effects of non-homogeneous soil profiles and variable hydraulic responses on rainfall-induced slope failures. In this study, probabilistic stability analyses were conducted for weathered residual soil slopes with different soil thickness overlying impermeable bedrock to study the rainfall-induced failure mechanisms depending on the soil thickness. A series of seepage and stability analyses of an infinite slope based on one-dimensional random fields were performed to consider the effects of uncertainty due to the spatial heterogeneity of hydraulic conductivity on the failure of unsaturated slopes due to rainfall infiltration. The results showed that a probabilistic framework can be used to efficiently consider various failure patterns caused by spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity in rainfall infiltration assessment for a infinite slope.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1027-1035
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• 2013

In this study, two rainfall patterns are utilized for practical consideration of rainfall phenomena in unsaturated soil slope design. One is the I.D.F (Intensity-Duration-Frequency) method which is an existing design rainfall method and ignores the effect of the variation of the rainfall according to the time. The other is the Huff method which considers this effect oppositely. First, the safety of factor of the slope according to the variation of an initial suction which means the precedent rainfall effect was examined by means of the application of the I.D.F method. Through the application of two rainfall patterns, it was discussed how the rainfall pattern affects the factor of safety of the slope. As a result, it is found that the Huff method is more practical on the evaluation of the slope stability than the I.D.F method.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-76
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• 2009

The unsaturated characteristics of Korean weathered granite soils have been studied to investigate the influence of saturated permeability, rainfall intensity and soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) on the slope stability. The upper, average and lower SWCCs were estimated from the publication and experimental results using the statistical concept. The roughly estimated SWCC can be used for the soils without experimental results by relating SWCC with the particle size distribution curve. An appropriate ratio between the saturated permeability and the rainfall intensity ($k_s$/i) was also suggested for practical use in designing the slopes by investigating the time-dependent variation of slope instability during the rainfall. The slope stability was deteriorated from the initiation of rainfall and recovered again after the factor of safety reached the critical value. The FS of the slope decreased at first and then increased after reaching the critical value during the rainfall. As a result, the slope instability was not related with an absolute rainfall intensity but with the ratio between the saturated permeability and the rainfall intensity. In case of the upper SWCC, the critical condition occurred when the ratio between the saturated permeability and the rainfall intensity was in the range of $1.0{\sim}2.0$.