6/6/2022

Effect of Groundwater
to Slope Stability

Wahyu Wilopo
Dept. of Geological Eng. UGM

Tujuan
• Memahami dampak airtanah terhadap
kestabilan lereng
• Mampu merancang mitigasi lereng akibat
airtanah

06/06/2022

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GROUNDWATER-INDUCED
INSTABILITY IN ROCK
There are several specific problems that may result from groundwater inflows into rock
excavations:
i. In very large rock excavations, there may be a risk of ‘block failure’, where part of
the rock mass slides or moves into the excavation, often moving along fractures
that slope into the excavation.
ii. If the rock possesses bedding that is roughly horizontal, or dipping at only a shallow
angle, groundwater pressures below the base of the excavation may remain
trapped beneath lower-permeability layers, leading to the ‘buoyancy uplift’-type
base stability problem.
iii. Localized groundwater problems include:
a) The concentration of flow where water flows from one or more fractures into the
excavation may create high flow velocities. This can give an associated risk of
erosion in and around the fracture and of dissolution of material in soluble rocks.
b) Weathered beds or zones (which may exist within otherwise competent rock) that
behave like soil and may slump inward as groundwater flows through them.
c) Groundwater emerging into the excavation at locations dictated by the rock
structure, bedding, fractures, etc. These locations will often be inconvenient for
construction operations and can cause problems.

SLOPE INSTABILITY
The stability of rock slopes is affected by groundwater. The potential failure
mechanisms will depend on the nature of the rock:
• If the rock is very intensely fractured (with very closely spaced fractures),
or has lost its structure and strength due to weathering, a slope will fail in
a structureless manner. The rock can act as an equivalent porous medium,
and failure surfaces will not be controlled by fractures and rock structure.
• Where the rock has significant fractures and structure, these features
tend to be weaker than the overall rock mass. If the geometry provides a
mechanism that allows blocks of rock to move as part of the failure
mechanism, slope failures will tend to be controlled by fracturing.
• It is also possible to have an intermediate condition where the failure
mechanism is partly controlled by fractures and partly by the rock mass.
One such failure mechanism is known as ‘ravelling’, which is the process
by which slopes fail by gradual movement of large numbers of relatively
small blocks, with no defined failure surface.

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Potential failure
mechanisms in rock slopes,
(a) Rock is very closely
fractured (or has been
weakened and destructured
by weathering), and failure
surfaces are not controlled
by fractures, (b) Failure
controlled by fractures and
rock structure.

Commonly used approaches to reduce water

pressures within rock slopes are:

a) Passive drainage into the excavation by natural

drainage pathways . This approach allows the slope
to drain into the excavation via the natural fractures
and other drainage pathways; the water is collected
in the excavation and pumped away by sump
pumps. This can be effective if the geometry of
drainage pathways is favourable to allow water to
flow to the excavation and provided there is no
close source of recharge that could maintain high
water pressures in the slope.

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Commonly used approaches to reduce

water pressures within rock slopes are

b) Passive drainage into the excavation assisted

by artificial drainage pathways. If the fracture
network (or barriers caused by large-scale
geological features such as faults) does not allow
water to drain easily into the excavation,
artificial drainage pathways can be created to
aid drainage. Sub-horizontal drains are often
used.

Commonly used approaches to reduce

water pressures within rock slopes are

c) Active drainage by vertical wells. Vertical

pumped wells can be used to lower
groundwater levels in a similar approach to that
used in soils. The success of this approach relies
on the wells connecting into the same fracture
network that controls water pressures in the
slope.

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Commonly used approaches to reduce

water pressures within rock slopes are

d) Low-permeability cut-off walls used to aid

drainage by reducing lateral recharge. Where
near-surface deposits (weathered rock or drift
deposits) are highly permeable and feed water
to slopes, cut-off walls can be used to reduce
lateral groundwater flow. This can allow
drainage measures at the slopes to be more
effective.

Groundwater control strategies

to improve the stability of rock
slopes, (a) Passive drainage
into the excavation by natural
drainage pathways, (b) Passive
drainage into the excavation
assisted by artificial drainage
pathways, (c) Active drainage
by vertical wells, (d) Low-
permeability cut-off walls used
to aid drainage by reducing
lateral recharge.

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BASE INSTABILITY
In relatively strong rock, the two most relevant
failure mechanisms affecting the base of an
excavation are:
i. Buoyancy uplift
ii. Enlargement/erosion of water pathways
Different types of failure can occur in mixed rock
conditions, such as when more weathered and less
weathered rock are both present below an
excavation. The failure mechanism may be
controlled by the weaker or more weathered rock.

Base Instability by Buoyancy Uplift

• The mechanism is a risk where excavation formation level bottoms
out in a very low-permeability stratum but there is a more
permeable ‘aquifer’ zone at depth containing high groundwater
pressures. If the weight of the ‘plug’ of ground (plus the resisting
forces from the shear strength of the rock) is not sufficient to resist
the upward groundwater pressures, then the plug of ground can
move upward, leading to instability and failure.
• Even though rocks are typically significantly stronger than soils, and
so the contribution to resisting forces due to shear strength may be
greater than in soils, this type of base instability can still occur in
rock excavations.
• If excavation is dug deeper into the very-low permeability rock
without any reduction of groundwater pressures in the aquifer
zone, there will come a time when the remaining plug

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Example of base instability due to

buoyancy uplift for an excavation in
rock, (a) Confined aquifer formed by
a more permeable bed of rock is
present below excavation, (b) A more
permeable fractured zone of rock
forms a confined aquifer below the
excavation, (c) High groundwater
pressures below excavation can
cause ‘bed separation’, where the
rock below the excavation moves
upwards and allows a reservoir of
water to build up beneath.

The stability of the base of an excavation in rock

can be assessed by the same methods as for
soils can take two different approaches:
I. Assessing a ‘global’ factor of safety F in
relation to the weight of the rock plug
compared with the upward water pressures.
II. Adopting a ‘partial factor’ approach to
stability calculations

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Instability by buoyancy uplift for

excavations in rock can be avoided by:
a) Adequately reducing the groundwater pressure by pumping from
suitable dewatering wells intercepting the aquifer zone. The wells
should lower the aquifer water pressure so that the downward
forces exceed the upward pressures by a suitable factor of safety.
b) Reducing the groundwater pressure in the confined aquifer by
installing relief wells within the excavation footprint. The relief wells
provide a preferential pathway for upward groundwater flow. As the
excavation is made below piezometric level, the relief wells will
overflow, and the water can be pumped away by sump pumps. This
will hold piezometric level at the excavation dig level at the relief well
locations. The use of relief wells is appropriate to target permeable
zones of limited thickness and/or limited recharge, where total flow
from the relief wells will be modest. Provided the relief wells are
installed on a grid pattern at a suitably close spacing, this is typically
sufficient to achieve stability.

Instability by buoyancy uplift for

excavations in rock can be avoided by:
C) Install a very low-permeability physical cut-off wall to penetrate
below the base of the confined aquifer. Provided the cut-off
walls are watertight, this will prevent further recharge, thus
leaving only the water pressure contained in the aquifer within
the cutoff walls to be dealt with. This can be affected by
installing relief wells prior to excavation, from which limited
flow is anticipated. The economics of this alternative will
depend primarily on the depth needed to secure a seal and the
effectiveness of that seal.
d) Increasing the downward pressure on the base of the
excavation by keeping it partly topped up with water during the
deeper stages of work. Excavation is made underwater, and a
tremie concrete plug is used to seal the base on completion).

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Problems caused by upward seepage can still occur in rock

excavations but tend to be associated with the enlargement or
erosion of pre-existing water pathways. Potential pathways that
can initiate this type of failure mechanism include:
a) Natural fractures in the rock, especially sub-vertical fracture
networks and larger fractures that are infilled with sediment.
b) Weathered zones within the rock, where the material may be
weaker and more erodible.
c) Artificial flow pathways that pre-date the excavation, such as
unsealed or poorly sealed investigation boreholes.
d) Artificial flow pathways associated with construction
activities, including the boring of piles or wells.

Base failure by enlargement/erosion of water pathways for

excavations in rock can be avoided by:

a) Adequately reducing the groundwater pressure below the base of the

excavation (below the lower-permeability zone) by pumping from dewatering
wells of adequate depth. The wells should lower the groundwater pressures so
that there is no upward seepage along the potentially problematic pathways.
b) Installing relief wells within the excavation footprint. The relief wells provide a
preferential pathway for upward groundwater flow, reducing upward seepage
along the potentially problematic pathways. As the excavation is made below
piezometric level, the relief wells will overflow, and the water can be pumped
away by sump pumps.
c) Install a very low-permeability physical cut-off wall to penetrate sufficiently
deeply to cut off the permeable layers. Provided the cut-off walls are deep
enough and are watertight, this will prevent further lateral recharge, thus
leaving only the water pressure contained within the area enclosed by the cut-
off walls to be dealt with. This can be affected by installing relief wells prior to
excavation, from which limited flow is anticipated. The economics of this
alternative will depend primarily on the depth needed to secure a seal and the
effectiveness of that seal.

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Groundwater flow systems on slopes. (a) Static; (b) commonly assumed, but incorrect,
flow system; (c) typical flow system in slopes (after Patton and Hendron, 1974).

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a) Transient position of the water table during rainfall on a slope; (b) pore pressure at
point C during and following a rainfall period; (c) factor of safety as a function
of time during and following a rainfall period.

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Some aspects of groundwater flow in rock slopes. (a) Possible large differences in fluid pressures in
adjacent rock joints; (b) comparison of transient water-table fluctuations in porous soil
slopes and low-porosity rock slopes; (c) fault as a low-permeability groundwater barrier
and as a high-permeability subsurface drain (after Patton and Deere, 1971).

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Groundwater inflow to the tunnel

(steady state)
They show that for the case of a tunnel of radius acting as a
steady-state drain [Figure (a)] in a homogeneous, isotropic media
with hydraulic conductivity K, the rate of groundwater
inflow Q0 per unit length of tunnel is given by (Goodman et al.,
1965)

2𝜋𝐾𝐻0
𝑄0 =
2𝐻
2.3 log( 0 )
𝑟

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Groundwater inflow to the tunnel

(transient)
Their analysis for the transient case [Figure (b)] shows the
cumulative rate of inflow Q(t) per unit length of tunnel at any
time t after the breakdown of steady flow to be given by

8𝐶
𝑄(𝑡) = ( 𝐾 𝐻03 𝑆𝑦 𝑡)1/2
3
where K is the hydraulic conductivity of the medium, Sy is the
specific yield, and C is an arbitrary constant.

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Tunnel as (a) a steady-state and (b) a

transient drain.

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Dewatering excavations by (a) horizontal drains; (b)

drainage gallery with radial drain holes; (c) three-stage
wellpoint system.

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Prediction of groundwater inflows into an excavation

(after Ibrahim and Brutsaert, 1965).

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THANK YOU

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