Contrôle de la stabilité des remblais par la mesure des déplacements horizontaux

1974 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Marche ◽  
Robert Chapuis

The horizontal displacements measured at the toe of eight embankments are analyzed as a function of the factor of safety. The embankments are built on layers of soft clay. Only the undrained stage is studied.When the factor of safety of the embankments is higher than about 1.4, the horizontal displacements on the ground surface, at the toe of the embankment seem to follow an elastic law which is highly dependent on the ratio of the thickness of the soft layer to the width of the embankment. When the factor of safety is lower than about 1.4, the horizontal displacements do not follow an elastic law, they increase considerably. Consequently, it is suggested that the horizontal displacements be precisely measured at the toe of embankments during construction. These measurements are simple and sensitive to the approach of failure, they can be efficiently used to control the stability of embankments. This study also gives some information concerning the variation of horizontal displacements versus depth.

1974 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. La Rochelle ◽  
B. Trak ◽  
F. Tavenas ◽  
M. Roy

The present paper reports on the failure of a test embankment built on a soft, sensitive, and cemented clay in Saint-Alban, Quebec. The embankment was built as a first stage of a research program aimed at studying the short and long term behavior of embankments on soft clay foundations.A complete description of the embankment, of the instrumentation, and of the failure is given, followed by the analysis of the failure performed on the basis of different assumptions of fill behavior and of vane strength values mobilized in the clay crust. The analyses show that the assumptions of full mobilization of friction in the fill seems to be the most representative of the fill behavior in the present case and that a suitable factor of safety is obtained only when a reduction of vane strength is assumed to act in the crust.A new approach based on the residual undrained strength is suggested and seems to offer some potential as a valuable means of analyzing the stability of embankments on clay foundations.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 2838
Author(s):  
Xiaoxing Zhang ◽  
Haoyuan Yi ◽  
Junjun Liu ◽  
Qi Li ◽  
Xin Luo

There has been a rising interest in compliant legged locomotion to improve the adaptability and energy efficiency of robots. However, few approaches can be generalized to soft ground due to the lack of consideration of the ground surface. When a robot locomotes on soft ground, the elastic robot legs and compressible ground surface are connected in series. The combined compliance of the leg and surface determines the natural dynamics of the whole system and affects the stability and efficiency of the robot. This paper proposes a bio-inspired leg compliance planning and implementation method with consideration of the ground surface. The ground stiffness is estimated based on analysis of ground reaction forces in the frequency domain, and the leg compliance is actively regulated during locomotion, adapting them to achieve harmonic oscillation. The leg compliance is planned on the condition of resonant movement which agrees with natural dynamics and facilitates rhythmicity and efficiency. The proposed method has been implemented on a hydraulic quadruped robot. The simulations and experimental results verified the effectiveness of our method.


1983 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. K. H. Ching ◽  
D. G. Fredlund

Several commonly encountered problems associated with the limit equilibrium methods of slices are discussed. These problems are primarily related to the assumptions used to render the inherently indeterminate analysis determinate. When these problems occur in the stability computations, unreasonable solutions are often obtained. It appears that problems occur mainly in situations where the assumption to render the analysis determinate seriously departs from realistic soil conditions. These problems should not, in general, discourage the use of the method of slices. Example problems are presented to illustrate these difficulties and suggestions are proposed to resolve these problems. Keywords: slope stability, limit equilibrium, method of slices, factor of safety, side force function.


2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Harris ◽  
Antoni G Lewkowicz

Active-layer detachment slides are locally common on Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, where permafrost is continuous, the active layer is 0.5-0.75 m thick, and summer temperatures are unusually high in comparison with much of the Canadian High Arctic. In this paper we report pore-water pressures at the base of the active layer, recorded in situ on two slopes in late July and early August 1995. These data form the basis for slope stability analyses based on effective stress conditions. During fieldwork, the factor of safety within an old detachment slide on a slope at Hot Weather Creek was slightly greater than unity. At "Big Slide Creek," on a slope showing no evidence of earlier detachment failures, the factor of safety was less than unity on a steep basal slope section but greater than unity elsewhere. In the upper slope, pore-water pressures were only just subcritical. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate that the stability of the shallow active layer is strongly influenced by changes in soil shear strength. Possible mechanisms for reduction in shear strength through time include weathering of soils and gradual increases in basal active layer ice content. However, we suggest here that soil shearing during annual gelifluction movements is most likely to progressively reduce shear strengths at the base of the active layer from peak values to close to residual, facilitating the triggering of active-layer detachment failures.Key words: detachment slides, Ellesmere Island, pore-water pressures, gelifluction.


2007 ◽  
Vol 01 (03) ◽  
pp. 233-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUBHADEEP BANERJEE ◽  
SIANG HUAT GOH ◽  
FOOK HOU LEE

The behavior of pile foundations under earthquake loading is an important factor affecting the performance of structures. Observations from past earthquakes have shown that piles in firm soils generally perform well, while the performance of piles in soft or liquefied ground can raise some questions. Centrifuge model tests were carried out at the National University of Singapore to investigate the response of pile-soil system under three different earthquake excitations. Some initial tests were done on kaolin clay beds to understand the pure clay behavior under repetitive earthquake shaking. Pile foundations comprising of solid steel, hollow steel and hollow steel pile filled with cement in-fill were then embedded in the kaolin clay beds to study the response of clay-pile system. Superstructural inertial loading on the foundation was modeled by fastening steel weight on top of the model raft. The model test results show that strain softening and stiffness degradation feature strongly in the behaviour of the clay. In uniform clay beds without piles, this is manifested as an increase in resonance periods of the surface response with level of shaking and with successive earthquakes. For the pile systems tested, the effect of the surrounding soft clay was primarily to impose an inertial loading onto the piles, thereby increasing the natural period of the piles over and above that of the pile foundation alone. There is also some evidence that the relative motion between piles and soil leads to aggravated softening of the soil around the pile, thereby lengthening its resonance period of the soil further. The centrifuge model tests were back-analyzed using the finite element code ABAQUS. The analysis shows that the simple non-linear hypoelastic soil model gave reasonably good agreement with the experimental observations. The engineering implication arising from this study so far is that, for the case of relatively short piles in soft clays, the ground surface motions may not be representative of the raft motion. Other than the very small earthquakes, the raft motion has a shorter resonance period than the surrounding soil.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahila Beegum ◽  
P J Jainet ◽  
Dawn Emil ◽  
K P Sudheer ◽  
Saurav Das

Abstract Soil pore water pressure analysis is crucial for understanding landslide initiation and prediction. However, field-scale transient pore water pressure measurements are complex. This study investigates the integrated application of simulation models (HYDRUS-2D/3D and GeoStudio–Slope/W) to analyze pore water pressure-induced landslides. The proposed methodology is illustrated and validated using a case study (landslide in India, 2018). Model simulated pore water pressure was correlated with the stability of hillslope, and simulation results were found to be co-aligned with the actual landslide that occurred in 2018. Simulations were carried out for natural and modified hill slope geometry in the study area. The volume of water in the hill slope, temporal and spatial evolution of pore water pressure, and factor of safety were analysed. Results indicated higher stability in natural hillslope (factor of safety of 1.243) compared to modified hill slope (factor of safety of 0.946) despite a higher pore water pressure in the natural hillslope. The study demonstrates the integrated applicability of the physics-based models in analyzing the stability of hill slopes under varying pore water pressure and hill slope geometry and its accuracy in predicting future landslides.


2020 ◽  
Vol 195 ◽  
pp. 03014
Author(s):  
Roberta Dainese ◽  
Giuseppe Tedeschi ◽  
Thierry Fourcaud ◽  
Alessandro Tarantino

The response of the shallow portion of the ground (vadose zone) and of earth structures is affected by the interaction with the atmosphere. Rainwater infiltration and evapotranspiration affect the stability of man-made and natural slopes and cause shallow foundations and embankments to settle and heave. Very frequently, the ground surface is covered by vegetation and, as a result, transpiration plays a major role in ground-atmosphere interaction. The soil, the plant, and the atmosphere form a continuous hydraulic system, which is referred to as Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum (SPAC). The SPAC actually represents the ‘boundary condition’ of the geotechnical water flow problem. Water flow in soil and plant takes place because of gradients in hydraulic head triggered by the negative water pressure (water tension) generated in the leaf stomata. To study the response of the SPAC, (negative) water pressure needs to be measured not only in the soil but also in the plant. The paper presents a novel technique to measure the xylem water pressure based on the use of the High-Capacity Tensiometer (HCT), which is benchmarked against conventional techniques for xylem water pressure measurements, i.e. the Pressure Chamber (PC) and the Thermocouple Psychrometer (TP).


2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 1841-1854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kentaro Yamamoto ◽  
Andrei V. Lyamin ◽  
Daniel W. Wilson ◽  
Scott W. Sloan ◽  
Andrew J. Abbo

This paper focuses mainly on the stability of a square tunnel in cohesive–frictional soils subjected to surcharge loading. Large-size noncircular tunnels are quickly becoming a widespread building technology by virtue of the development of advanced tunneling machines. The stability of square tunnels in cohesive–frictional soils subjected to surcharge loading has been investigated theoretically and numerically, assuming plane strain conditions. Despite the importance of this problem, previous research on the subject is very limited. At present, no generally accepted design or analysis method is available to evaluate the stability of tunnels or openings in cohesive–frictional soils. In this study, a continuous loading is applied to the ground surface, and both smooth and rough interface conditions between the loading and soil are modelled. For a series of tunnel geometries and material properties, rigorous lower and upper bound solutions for the ultimate surcharge loading of the considered soil mass are obtained by applying recently developed numerical limit analysis techniques. The results obtained are presented in the form of dimensionless stability charts for practical convenience, with the actual surcharge loads being closely bracketed from above and below. As a handy practical means, upper bound rigid-block mechanisms for square tunnels have also been developed, and the obtained values of collapse loads were compared with the results from numerical limit analysis to verify the accuracy of both approaches. Finally, an expression that approximates the ultimate surcharge load of cohesive–frictional soils with the inclusion of shallow square tunnels has been devised for use by practicing engineers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 857 ◽  
pp. 555-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuhayr Md Ghazaly ◽  
Mustaqqim Abdul Rahim ◽  
Kok Alfred Chee Jee ◽  
Nur Fitriah Isa ◽  
Liyana Ahmad Sofri

Slope stability analysis is one of the ancient tasks in the geotechnical engineering. There are two major methods; limit equilibrium method (LEM) and finite element method (FEM) that were used to analyze the factor of safety (FOS) to determine the stability of slope. The factor of safety will affect the remediation method to be underdesign or overdesign if the analysis method was not well chosen. This can lead to safety and costing problems which are the main concern. Furthermore, there were no statement that issued one of the analysis methods was more preferred than another. To achieve the objective of this research, the soil sample collected from landslide at Wang Kelian were tested to obtain the parameters of the soils. Then, those results were inserted into Plaxis and Slope/W software for modeling to obtain the factor of safety based on different cases such as geometry and homogenous of slope. The FOS obtained by FEM was generally lower compared to LEM but LEM can provide an obvious critical slip surface. This can be explained by their principles. Overall, the analysis method chosen must be based on the purpose of the analysis.


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