GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

ECG 503
LECTURE NOTE 03

TOPIC : 2.0 SLOPE RISK

ENGINEERING
31 JULY 2008

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Learning outcomes:
At the end of this lecture/week the students would
be able to:
Conduct slope risk assessment analysis.

Determine the various of slope protection and

rehabilitation works.

OUTLINE

Rocks

soils
Residual soils

Slope materials

Types of slopes

Classification of landslides

Infinite slopes
Types of failures

Finite slopes

SLOPE
STABILITY

Cut Slope

Earth fill / embankment

Shear strength
Plastic Equilibrium
Stability analysis

Increased in stress

Slope instability
Decreased in strength

Factor of safety

Methods
Total stress vs.
effective stress

TYPES OF LANDSLIDES

TYPES OF LANDSLIDES (2)

Classification of Landslides (Varnes, 1978)

TYPE OF MATERIAL
Engineering soils

TPYE OF MOVEMENT
Bedrock

Predominantly coarse

Predominantly fine

Falls

Rock fall

Debris fall

Earth fall

Topples

Rock topple

Debris topple

Earth topple

Rock slump

Debris slump

Earth slump

Few units

Rock block
slide

Debris block
slide

Earth block slide

Many
units

Rock Slide

Debris slide

Earth slide

Lateral spreads

Rock spread

Debris spread

Earth spread

Flows

Rock flow
(deep creep)

Debris flow
(soil creep)

Earth flow
(soil creep)

Complex

Combination of two or more principal types of movement

Rotational

Slides
Translational

1. Natural slopes

TYPES OF SLOPE

2. Engineered slopes

Cut slopes

Fill slopes: Road and

railway embankments
involving compacted
soils

Retaining structures

Rock slopes

Engineered Cut Slope

Altered by excavation activities

Bogot (Colombia)
Geogrid reinforced steep road
embankment

Slope failure of a road

embankment (fill slope)

Rock slope in Hong Kong

FACTORS AFFECTING SLOPE STABILITY

Among the factors which may contribute to slope

sliding movements are :1. Pore pressure increased
2. Erosion
3. Soil stratification
4. Soil degradation and weathering
5. Presence of tension cracks
6. Vegetative cover
7. Change of stress condition
8. Rise of the groundwater table
9. Rock mass discontinuities
10. Rock mass state

Main items required to evaluate the

stability of a slope
1.Shear strength of soils

2.Slope geometry
3.Pore pressures or seepage forces
4.Loading and environmental conditions.

TYPES OF SLOPE (continue)

Slope failure in natural

slope

The Wolf Mountain

landslide, a large
slump-debris flow
with an estimated
volume of 500,000
cubic yards,
occurred on May
18, 1997 . The
debris flows
overran a 400-ft
stretch of U.S.
Highway 26-89, a
primary highway
leading to Jackson
, and to
Yellowstone
National Park .

Rock fall

Potential rock fall hazard

Slope failure in residual soil formation involving rock fall

Surcharge

Bukit Lanjan
Kuala Lumpur
28th Nov 2003

Rock slopes

Sheet jointing in
granite (Hong Kong)

Rock slide by undercutting

sheet joints (Hong Kong)

Slope failure at Bukit Antarabangsa

Condominium (15/5/1999)

Mud flow

Tragedy at Pos Dipang

Tanah runtuh di Kampong Pasir, Hulu Klang

pada 31 Mei 2006 involved 4 lifes.

ROCK FALL

EXAMPLE OF
DEBRIS FLOW

EXAMPLE OF EARTH FLOW

EXAMPLE OF AN
EARTH SLUMP
(Rotational )

EXAMPLE OF A SOIL CREEP

TREE PLANTING

STEP

TURFING

EAST COAST EXPRESSWAY

169 kilometer

CUT SLOPE

NORTH SOUTH EXPRESSWAY

848 kilometer

TURFING

DRAIN

EAST COAST EXPRESSWAY

169 kilometer

TERRACING

TURFING
V SHAPED DRAIN

EXISTING TREE

KL - KARAK HIGHWAY
60 kilometer

CASCADED DRAIN

EXISTING TREE
SLOPE CUTTING

KL - KARAK HIGHWAY
60 kilometer

GUNITING

SOIL NAILING
SURFACE DRAINAGE

SHAH ALAM EXPRESSWAY

34.5 kilometer

COVERED BY CREEPERS

GUNITING

GUNITING & TURFING

GEOSYNTHETIC SHEET

R.C WALL

GUNITING

SOIL NAILING

GUNITING

Normal question asked.

1. Why slopes fail during rainy season ?

2. Why slope failure due to rainfall is a shallow type slope failure ?

3. What is the important of unsaturated soil mechanics in slope stability ?
4. Why the distribution of the negative pore water pressure above GWT is ignore in the
conventional slope stability analysis ?
5. Why the stability analysis using the conventional method indicates slope failed i.e.
FOS < 1 whereas the slope is still standing ?
6. How does geotechnical engineer modelled slope failure due to rainfall infiltration
before understanding the unsaturated soil mechanics ?
7. Why slope that has been standing safely for quite a while suddenly fails ?
8. How does infiltration affect the stability of slope ?
9. Does soil shear strength continuously increase with suction ?

10. Can the conventional method of slope stability analysis modelled shallow type of
slope failure due to infiltration ?
11. Is the Highland Towers tragedy involved the subject of stability of slope in effect of
infiltration ?

12. Does the slope cover using shotcrete or plastic sheet help to stabilize the slope ?

PREVIOUS PRACTICE OF MODELLING SLOPE

FAILURE DUE TO RAINFALL INFILTRATION

1. Effective stress decrease due to

buoyancy effect of the
submerged section of the slice.
2. Therefore the shear resistance
decrease.
3. Thence, FOS decrease.
4. But still the shallow type of
slope failure cannot be
modelled.

Geotechnical engineers used to model slope failure due to rainfall infiltration by

considering the GWT to rise. Whereas GWT in tropical residual soil is far below the
slope surface. The assumption does not depicts what actually happen in the field.
This happened because the mode of failure is not well understood besides the lack
of knowledge in the mechanics of unsaturated soils in the past.

FEATURES OF A SLOPE FAILURE

TERMINOLOGY

SLOPE MATERIALS

Types of geologic soil deposits

Typical residual soil profile

(Little, 1969)

MODES OF SLOPE FAILURE

Toe circle

Slope circle

Slope failure
Base failure
Typical of
slope failure
due to rainfall
infiltration

Shallow slope failure

Translational slides

Theoretical model
for slope stability
Effective stress analysis ordinary slice method (Fellenius, 1927)

From theoretical model, the behaviour can be anticipated

before it actually happen.

Resisting factor
The theory doesnt work for rainfall
induced failure, therefore the factors
involved in the theoretical model need
to be changed or improved.
Disturbing factor

Effective stress and shear strength

must be incorporated in slope
stability analysis !!!!!

Mechanism of rainfall
induced slope failure

Rain

At point A, effective
stress increase during
infiltration. Effective
stress increase should
be elevating the shear
stress, then why failure
????
Because, shear strength
decrease when the
wetting front arrived at A
due to suction loss !!!!!!

International Seminar on Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, UiTM 13 & 14 June 2006 (ISCIE 06)

Model infiltration into slope

Volumetric moisture content (cm3/cm3)

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

5
10

Saturated volumetric moisture

content = 0.387 cm3/cm3

0.40

Gravity has
negligible
effect on
infiltration

15

Soil depth (cm)

20
25
t = 581.7 s
30
35

t = 701.7 s

40

t = 821.7 s

45

t = 941.7 s

50
55

Richard equation for moisture

flow in unsaturated media

h
h
h
C h K h K h 1
t x
t z
z

Role of suction in soil mechanics.

Surface tension force ?

A needle floating on water surface.

Its weight depresses the surface,
and is balanced by the surface
tension forces on the sides.

Surface tension force ?

Surface Tension and the Water Strider

Beading of rain water on a

waxed surface.
Water does not adhere to
wax, surface tension
prevents water drops from
spreading out over the wax.

Surface tension force ?

Surface
tension
prevents the
coin from
sinking.

The coin is
indisputably
denser than
water, so
cannot be
floating due to
buoyancy
alone.

SUCTION IN SOIL MECHANICS

Suction = (ua-uw)

Suction Force

Agitation force due to

surface tension of water.

Water pressure is lower than air

pressure.

ua uw
Soil
particle

Surface
tension
force

Bigger
suction force

In the field air pressure is zero

atmospheric or zero kPa (gauge
pressure) and pore water pressure
is negative.
Cavitation occurs at -101.3 kPa or
-1 Atmosphere (gauge pressure).

Soil
particle

How sand castle stands ?

Mohr Coulomb failure envelope

Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria is concerned with
stress conditions on potential rupture planes
within the soil.

Mohr-Coulomb
failure envelope

The shear stress at failure is defined by straight line

which is known as the Mohr-Coulomb failure
envelope, = c + tan .
If Mohrs circle of effective stress touches the line
envelope then failure of the soil will occur.

For sliding to occur on any plane, the shear stress

has to overcome:1. The frictional resistance tan which is
dependent on the effective normal stress,
acting on the plane and on the friction angle, .

2. The cohesion, c which is independent of the

normal stress.

BASIC CONCEPT OF SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSIS

1. Determine effective stress at slice base

2. Determine internal friction angle,

3. Calculate shear stress

4. Calculate the shear force
5. Calculate disturbing moment = Multiply the force with the lever arm
N effective stress

Pulling force, P

Law of
mechanics

F = N

In soil . = tan
N =

= tan

EFFECTIVE STRESS CONCEPT IN

SLOPE STABILITY

' u
Stress sustained by the soil skeleton is known as
effective stress.
The hydrostatic stress from the water in the voids is
known as pore water pressure.

In unsaturated soils the pore water pressure is

negative w.r.t. the atmospheric pressure and this is
contributing to a higher effective stress and thus a
higher shear strength.

RESEARCH HISTORY ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF UNSATURATED SOILS

Bishop 1959
' u a u a u w

A parameter related to degree

of saturation
= 1 for saturated condition
= 0 for dry condition

Expression for effective stress in an

attempt to link the deformation
behaviour of unsaturated soil with a
single-valued effective stress equation.
Lecture in Oslo, Norway, in 1955
Jenning and Burland (1962)
No unique relationship between, e and .
question the validity of Bishop equation.
Suction , , Vol
Usually , Vol

Blight, 1961

Terzaghi 1936

c' ' tan '

Donald, 1961

c' u a tan 'u a u w tan '

Bishop, Alpan, Blight and Donald (1960)

No unique relationship between and Sr.

question the validity of Bishops effective equation

Cohesionless silt

RESEARCH HISTORY ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF UNSATURATED SOILS

A slope failure that triggered the intensity of
research on the behaviour of unsaturated soil

c' ua tan 'ua uw tan b

(ua-uw)

(-ua)

Then in 1978 Fredlund, Morgenstern and

Widger has introduced the shear
strength equation for unsaturated soils.

Po Shan Road Landslide 1972,

Hong Kong (Killed 67 people)
Then Alonso et al. (1990) have introduced critical
state model for unsaturated soils followed by
Wheeler and Sivakumar 1993 and 1995.
Model cannot explain the alternate wetting and drying
volume change behaviour in unsaturated soils.

Wheeler et al. (Geotechnique 2003)

q M a p ua M w ua uw

MECHANISM OF SLOPE FAILURE

DUE TO INFILTRATION
As rain water infiltrates into the unsaturated soil ;

The bulk unit weight of the soil will be increased.

As water filled up the void spaces, suction diminishes due to the

increase in the radius of curvature of the water meniscus between the
soil particles. The suction will completely vanish when the soil become
saturated.

When suction decreases shear strength will consequently decreases.

The decrease in shear strength will reduce the resisting factor.

The increase in the bulk unit weight and the presence of the seepage
force will increase the effective stress i.e. the disturbing factor.

As a result FOS will decrease and when the value goes lower than
unity failure will be triggered.

That is why slope failure in tropical countries

often occurs after a long period of rainfall.

SHEAR STRENGTH MODELS

c' ua tan 'ua uw tan b

uw tan '

q M a p ua M w ua uw

(ua-uw)

c
(-uw)

Mohr-Coulomb envelope
(Terzaghi, 1936)

(-ua)

Extended Mohr-Coulomb Open type critical state yield surface Closed type critical
envelope
(Alonso et al., 1990 & Wheeler and
state yield surface
(Fredlund et al., 1978)
Sivakumar, 1993 and 1995)
(Tang and Graham

2002)

LIMITATION OF EARLIER SHEAR STRENGTH MODELS

Cannot produce a good representative shear strength behaviour
especially at low stress levels (e.g. Terzaghi, 1936; Fredlund et al.,
1978; Vanapalli et al., 1996).
Cannot be used to explain the collapse settlement due to
alternate wetting and drying (noted by Wheeler, Sharma and
Buisson, 2003).

DEFINING SHEAR STRENGTH BASE ON

NET STRESS AND SUCTION IN EXTENDED

Equation for the

surface envelope

MOHR-COULOMB SPACE

ua uw

ua

2.
3.

csmax 30kPa

ua uw r 15kPa

uw t 200kPa

4. t

5.

'
'
ua tan min
t uw t tan min

SOIL
SHEAR STRENGTH

230kPa

max
s

'
min

400

300

u a u w u u a u a u w u

'0

Zone4
200

ua 1 uw t ua
t
uw t
N uw t

max
s

Zone 2

ua uw u ua uw ua uw r ua uw

ua uw u ua uw r ua uw u ua uw r

100

0500
400

1
'

tan 80
min
1 u w t
t

4 equations &
7 parameters

ua uw u ua uw u500

a u w r ua u w

ua uw u ua uw r ua uw u ua uw r

34
6. 0.05
' 0
7. ua uw
50kPa
u

Shear strength (kPa)

1.

300

60
200

40
100

20

Suction (kPa)

ua 1 uw t ua

t
uw t
N uw t

u u u u u u
a w 1 a w r a w csmax
ua uw r
ua uw r

Net
stress (kPa)

'
'
ua tan min
t uw t tan min
f

ua uw 1 ua uw r ua uw c max
s
ua uw r
ua uw r

WARPED-SURFACE EXTENDED MOHR-COULOMB SHEAR

STRENGTH ENVELOPE OF THE TEST MATERIAL500

'

min f

300

34

This is a Mohr (1900)

failure criterion, which
is a non-linear shear
strength behaviour
w.r.t. effective stress.
Mohr-Coulomb failure
criterion is a linear shear
strength behaviour w.r.t.
effective stress proposed
by Terzaghi (1936).

Zone
3

Zone
4
Zone
1

2
t 230kPa

Zone
2

100

6
ua uw u '0

200

20
uw t 200kPa
40

csmax 30kPa

ua60 uw r 15kPa
80

400

Shear strength (kPa)

ua uw u 0.05 ua 50

0
100
50200
kPa
300

5400
500

Net stress (kPa)

Suction (kPa)
= 0.05 i.e. rate of increase of ultimate suction, (ua-uw)u w.r.t. net stress