Numerical investigation of rainfall-induced fines migration and its influences on slope stability

Rainfall-infiltration-induced fines migration within soil slopes may alter the local porosity and hydraulic properties of soils, and is known to be a possible cause of the failure of slopes. To investigate the intrinsic mechanisms, a mathematical formulation capable of capturing the main features of the coupled unsaturated seepage and fines migration process has been presented. Within the formulation, an unsaturated erodible soil is treated as a three-phase multi-species porous medium based on mixture theory; mass conservation equations with mass exchange terms together with the rate equations controlling fines erosion and deposition processes are formulated as the governing equations and are solved by the FEM method. The influences of both the fines detachment and deposition on the stability of slopes under rainfall infiltration have been investigated numerically. The results show that depending on whether the fines move out or get captured at pore constrictions, both desired and undesired consequences may arise out of the fines migration phenomenon. It is suggested that more attention should be paid to those slopes susceptible to internal erosion whose safety analysis cannot be predicted by traditional methods.