3D stability of unsaturated soil slopes with tension cracks under steady infiltrations |
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| Authors: | Long Wang Wei Hu De'an Sun Lin Li |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444 China;2. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironmental Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059 China;3. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092 China |
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| Abstract: | Most classical approaches for evaluating the stability of soil slopes with cracks are performed under two-dimensional (2D) condition. Three-dimensional (3D) effect and suction-induced effect of unsaturated soils are generally neglected in assessing the slope stability. This paper develops a 3D limit analysis method to evaluate the stability of an unsaturated soil slope with tension cracks under steady infiltrations. The boundary-value problem is formulated based on the 3D rotational failure mechanism by taking the effects of suction, effective unit weight, and tension crack into account. A simplified method is proposed to calculate the work rate of unsaturated soil weight. A layer-wise summation method is developed based on the divergence theorem to calculate the internal energy dissipation rate. Detailed discussions are conducted to investigate the effects of suction and Poisson's ratio on the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. Examples are given to illustrate the 3D effect, the suction-induced effect as well as the effects of infiltration and water in cracks on the slope stability. |
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| Keywords: | limit analysis slope stability steady infiltration suction stress tension crack unsaturated soil |
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