Numerical Simulation Of Unsteady Seepage And Stability Analysis Of Unsaturated Soil Slope Subjected To Rainfall

Most slope failures are caused by the infiltration of rainwater into a slope. Modeling the effects of rainfall on the stability of unsaturated soil slope is an urgent and complicated engineering problem worldwide. The study presented in this thesis concerns this problem by using numerical analyzing methods.Numerical models were used to study how the infiltration into a slope varies with the rainfall intensity,rain fall duration,soil properties and how the infiltration influences the stability of a slope. A numerical program is coded to solve the transient seepage field by using the finite element and finite difference methods based on the saturated-unsatured soil seepage theory. A model for considering the variations of soil weight and shear strength is created/constructed and the corresponding program is coded.The presented study is an attempt on the development and improvement of numerical methods for slope stability analyses. Several conclusions on the characteristics of the slope stability under rainfalls are obtained. The presented methods and models could be widely used for the numerical analyses on the stability of unsaturated soil slopes.