Analysis of an anti-dip landslide triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China

The Guantan landslide, with a total displaced mass of about 468 × 10⁴ m³, was triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and succeeding rainfall in Jushui Town, Sichuan Province, China. The landslide occurred on an anti-dip hard rock slope with a weak rock founding stratum of 200 m in thickness. To investigate the failure mechanism of the Guantan landslide, dynamic behaviors of hard and soft rock slopes were investigated by means of large scale shaking table tests. The laboratory models attempted to simulate the field geological conditions of the Guantan landslide. Sinusoidal waves and actual seismic waves measured from the Wenchuan Earthquake were applied on the slope models under 37 loading configurations. The experimental results indicated that deformation mainly developed at a shallow depth in the upper part of the hard rock slope and in the upper (near the crest) and lower (near the toe) parts of the soft rock slope. An equation for predicting the depth of sliding plane was proposed based on the location of the maximum horizontal acceleration. Finally, it was concluded that the failure process of the Guantan landslide occurred in three stages: (1) toppling failure caused by compression of the underlying soft rock strata, (2) formation of crushed hard rock and sliding surface in soft rock as the result of seismic shocks, particularly in the horizontal direction, and (3) aftershock rainfall accelerates the process of mass movement along the sliding plane.     

Susceptibility assessment of the precursor stage of a landslide threatening Haivan Railway Station,Vietnam

Haivan Station is an important station on the North-South railway line in central Vietnam. Field investigation has identified a precursor stage of a landslide that would threaten this railway. Therefore, a landslide susceptibility assessment for Haivan Station was urgently needed to protect passenger safety and the national railway. Conducted investigations included air-photo interpretation, drilling, ground water and inclinometer monitoring, laboratory testing, and landslide simulation. This research applied the undrained dynamic loading ring shear apparatus ICL-2 to drill-core samples from the precursor landslide. Samples for ring shear tests were taken from sandy soil layers found at depths of ~21, ~31, and ~50 m in the cores. Each of these was believed to be a possible sliding surface of a landslide, and all were tested to shear failure in the ICL-2 apparatus. The boundary between highly weathered granitic rock and weathered granitic rock was identified at about 50 m depth. The inclinometer monitoring detected slight movement at this depth. Therefore, the present day risk of a landslide forming at 50 m is higher than for one forming at either 21 or 31 m. The landslide dynamic parameters obtained from the ring shear test of the 50-m-deep sample were used in an integrated numerical simulation model LS-RAPID. The simulation result gave the critical pore-pressure ratio for landslide occurrence, and landslide’s likely maximum speed, total volume, and depth of landslide debris that could cover the railway. These estimates serve to raise awareness of the vulnerability of the Vietnam national railway sector to landslide impact.     

河北省宽城县遵(化)小(寺沟)铁路某滑坡治理措施研究

河北省宽城县遵(化)小(寺沟)铁路穿越一个体积约77104m3的古滑坡体,因在滑坡前缘以路堑方式穿过,开挖施工导致古滑坡复活。为保障未来铁路的运营安全,需要对其进行彻底治理。在现场地质调查及试验,以及分别对沿复活滑坡体新滑面和古滑面在不同工况下的稳定性计算的基础上,结合复活滑坡体的具体特征,提出2种治理方案,即抗滑桩方案和削方+抗滑桩+桩间挡土墙方案。通过综合比选确定后者为采用方案,并具体进行了削方、抗滑桩、截排水系统和坡面防护等设计。     

Effects of geological and tectonic characteristics on the earthquake-triggered Daguangbao landslide,China

The Daguangbao landslide is the largest co-seismic landslide triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake (Ms 8.0) occurred on 12 May 2008. The landslide, which is 4.6 km long and 3.7 km wide, involves a volume of approximately 1.2 × 10⁹ m³. An exposed slip surface, situated at the southern flank of its source area, was observed with a length of 1.8 km along the main sliding direction and an area of 0.3 km². To study the geological and tectonic characteristics of the source area and their contributions to the landslide formation during the earthquake, detailed geological investigations were firstly conducted. And it is reached that the landslide occurred on the northwestern limb of the Dashuizha anticline with its scarp showing several geological structures, including joint sets, local faults, and folds. These tectonic-related structures potentially influenced the failure of the landslide. Secondly, further investigations were focused on the inclined planar sliding surface using 12 exploratory trenches, nine boreholes, a tunnel, borehole sonic data, and micro-images. These data reveal that the rock mass along the sliding surface was the fragmented rock of a bedding fault. A pulverized zone was observed on the sliding surface, which was the zone of shear localization during the landslide. This suggests that the shear failure of the Daguangbao landslide developed within the bedding fault. The rapid failure of the landslide was associated with the degradation of the rock mass strength of the bedding fault both before and during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. With this study, we propose that a pre-existing large discontinuity within a slope may be the basis for initiating a large landslide during earthquake.     

Stability assessment of Jinlong village landslide,Sichuan

The Jinlong village landslide is located in Zitong County, Sichuan and approximately 150 km east of Wenchuan. The landslide has exhibited creep deformation for nearly 30 years. Field investigations indicated that the slope deformation was caused by the combined effects of unfavorable topographic and geological conditions and earthquakes. The sliding surface is along a contact between silty clay and mudstone. The Wenchuan earthquake accelerated the creep, causing bulging of the ground surface. Shear test results of the silty clay near the sliding surface indicated that the residual strength is consistent with the stability state of the landslide. The factors of safety were calculated using the limit equilibrium method (LEM) and the method of fast Lagrangian analysis of continua in two dimensions. The results using the LEM indicate that the stability is clearly affected by seismic shaking, and when the peak ground acceleration is 0.08g, the slope reaches the limit state. The shear failure surface given by numerical simulation develops on the contact between the clay and silty mudstone, which confirmed the assumed sliding surfaces’ location using the LEM.     

Geological Characteristics and Stability Evaluation of Wanjia Middle School Slope in Wenchuan Earthquake Area

To investigate the formation mechanism and the stability of Wanjia middle school slope in Wenchuan Earthquake Area, the macroscopic geological characteristics and the failure process of the landslide are researched by engineering geology analysis method, limit equilibrium method, and finit element method. The results show that after the Wenchuan Earthquake, retaining walls, houses and other infrastructure on the foot of Wanjia middle school slope were severely destroyed, 10 cm wide tension fracture appeared at the trailing edge of the slope. Wanjia middle school slope is a type of medium-sized soil landslide. The area of the deformation body is about 19,314 m², the total volume of the deformation body is about 23 × 10⁴ m³. There may be two potential sliding surfaces in the unstable slope: shallow and deep landslide. The analysis results of the limit equilibrium method and the finite element method show that: under dead weight, dead weight + rainstorm, dead weight + earthquake conditions, the plastic zone occurs mainly at the middle part or the trailing edge of the slope, and it doesn’t fully cut through the deep landslide body, so the deep landslide is stable. However, under rainstorm or earthquake conditions, the plastic zone almost completely cut thorough the shallow landslide body, it shows that the shallow landslide is in the understable–basic stable state. It is found that the results of finite element method is concordant with the results of the limit equilibrium method (F _s = 1.06–1.29, the shallow landslide is in the basic stable–stable state). The calculation results show that shallow landslides are likely to occur in Wanjia middle school slope during a rainstorm or an earthquake, so monitoring and control of the slope should be strengthened. The shallow landslide should be managed by some measures, such as anti slide pile retaining structures and drainage works, and the dangerous rock bodies on the slope surface should be cleaned up.     

Vertical acceleration effect on landsides triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake,China

The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake with Ms8.0 triggered extensive throwing-pattern landslides in the area within or near the seismic faults. The resultant landslides from this earthquake brought to the fore the effect of vertical earthquake acceleration on landslide occurrence. The pseudostatic analysis and the dynamic response on landslide stability due to the Wenchuan earthquake are studied with the Chengxi (West Town) catastrophic landslide used as a case study. The results show that the epicenter distance is an important factor which affects the vertical acceleration and thus the stability of landslide. Also, the vertical acceleration was found to have a significant impact on the FOS of landslide if the earthquake magnitude is quite large. Within the seismic fault, the amplitude effect of vertical acceleration is very dominant with the FOS of landslide, for vertical acceleration ranging from positive to negative, having a variation of 25 %. The variation of FOS of landslide for vertical acceleration ranging from positive to negative are 15 and 5 % for landslides near seismic fault and outside seismic fault, respectively. For landslide with a slope angle <45°, the FOS of landslide with both horizontal and vertical accelerations is significantly greater than the one without vertical acceleration. Further, the results computed from both the pseudostatic method and dynamic analysis reveal that the FOS during the earthquake varied significantly whether vertical acceleration is considered or not. The results from this study explain why lots of throwing-pattern catastrophic landslides occurred within 10 km of the seismic fault in the Wenchuan earthquake.     

Experimental and numerical investigations of a catastrophic long-runout landslide in Zhenxiong,Yunnan, southwestern China

On 11 January 2013, a catastrophic landslide of ～0.2 million m³ due to a prolonged low-intensity rainfall occurred in Zhenxiong, Yunnan, southwestern China. This landslide destroyed the village of Zhaojiagou and killed 46 people in the distal part of its path. The displaced landslide material traveled a horizontal distance of ～800 m with a vertical drop of ～280 m and stopped at 1520 m a.s.l. To examine the possible mechanism and behavior of the landslide from initiation to runout, the shear behavior of soil samples collected from the sliding surface and runout path was examined by means of ring shear tests. The test results show that the shear strength of sample from the sliding surface is less affected by shear rate while the shear rate has a negative effect on the shear strength of runout path material. It is suggested that the source and runout path materials follow the frictional and Voellmy rheology, respectively. Post-failure behavior of the landslide was modeled by using a DAN-W model, and the numerical results show that the selected rheological relationships and parameters based on the results of ring shear tests may provide good performance in modeling the Zhenxiong landslide.     

L型挡土墙滑裂面确定方法与地震稳定性分析

提出了L型挡土墙两种破坏模式,即长踵板式和短踵板式,且破坏模式受几何参数和物理力学参数影响。研究了两种破坏模式下L型挡土墙滑裂面确定方法和地震稳定性问题,界定了两种破坏模式的临界条件。考虑第二、第三滑裂面产生条件,应用极限分析运动学原理,建立地震荷载作用下L型挡土墙临界状态方程,推导出地震加速度系数表达式。根据极值原理,给出最优解,从而计算得到临界屈服加速度系数及其对应的滑裂面倾角。通过算例分析可知：临界屈服加速度系数小于M-O公式法,长踵板式L型挡土墙滑裂面倾角与坦墙判别公式结果相同,且滑裂面之间的夹角等于90o-φ,即与滑移线场的结论相同。短踵板式L型挡土墙滑裂面夹角近似等于90o-φ。     

集安市净水厂滑坡灾害防治措施

集安市净水厂滑坡灾害位于丘陵区前缘,形成原因为大气降水入渗、风化裂隙水及净水厂渗漏水,改变了上覆松散岩层稳定性。滑坡为土质滑塌、滑动面为基岩面。防治工程措施为排水孔、排水沟、挡土墙。     

Seismic Retrofit of Gravity Retaining Walls for Residential Fills Using Ground Anchors

Failure of several gravity retaining walls in residential areas built on reclaimed land, during the October 23, 2004 Chuetsu earthquake in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, determined the authorities to consider the seismic retrofit of the walls in order to mitigate future similar disasters in the urban environment. This study addresses the effectiveness of ground anchors in improving the seismic performance of such retaining structures through a sliding block analysis of the seismic response of an anchored gravity retaining wall supporting a dry homogeneous fill slope subject to horizontal ground shaking. Sliding failure along the base of the wall and translational failure along a planar slip surface of the active wedge within the fill material behind the wall were considered in the formulation, whereas the anchor load was taken as a line load acting on the face of the gravity retaining wall. The effects of magnitude and orientation of anchor load on the yield acceleration of the wall-backfill system and seismically induced wall displacements were examined. It was found that for the same anchor orientation, the yield acceleration increases in a quasi-linear manner with increasing the anchor load, whereas an anchor load of a given magnitude acting at various orientations produces essentially identical yield accelerations. On the other hand, the computed earthquake-induced permanent displacements of the anchored gravity retaining wall decrease exponentially with increasing magnitude of anchor load. Additionally, the influence of backfill strength properties (e.g., internal friction angle) on the seismic wall displacement appears to diminish considerably for the anchored gravity retaining wall. A dynamic displacement analysis conducted for the anchored gravity retaining wall subjected to various seismic waveforms scaled to the same peak earthquake acceleration revealed a good correlation between the calculated permanent wall displacements and the Arias intensity parameter characterizing the input accelerogram.     

Seismic behaviors of soil slope in permafrost regions using a large-scale shaking table

Large-scale shaking table model tests were carried out to study the dynamic behaviors of slopes and failure mechanism of landslide in permafrost regions. The model slope was constituted of silty clay layer stacked on an ice layer with 8° surface slope. Acceleration, displacement, and pore pressure were measured subjected to vertical and horizontal seismic loadings. The horizontal wave has a stronger influence on the failure of the model than the vertical wave motion, and the natural frequency of vibration in the horizontal direction decreased obviously at the failure state. The model slope has three components of different nonlinear mechanical properties, which are the soil layer, soil-ice interface, and ice layer. The amplification factor of peak ground acceleration is obviously smaller at the soil-ice interface than that at the soil and ice layer. The acceleration responses are nonlinear because of the nonlinear soil properties and degradation of modulus with increasing horizontal acceleration. Especially, excess pore pressure generation was observed near the soil-ice interface of the slope subjected to higher input acceleration, which resulted in the decrease of the effective stress. Failure surface appeared to be the soil-ice interface, which was consistent with the field observations of landslides in permafrost regions. Slope failure could be defined based on the massive movement of the slope, characterized by integral sliding pattern along the soil-ice interface without the distinct deformation inside the sliding body. The results show that the sliding of the slope with soil layer at gentle gradient is mainly triggered by the combined action of horizontal seismic wave, existence of soil-ice interface, and pore pressure generation in permafrost regions.     

Computation of sliding displacements of seawalls under earthquake conditions

To understand the serviceability aspects of seawalls, it is essential to study the permanent displacements of seawalls that occur during the earthquakes. Studies in the existing literature have concentrated on displacements of retaining walls with dry backfills; to the authors’ observation there is no specific analytical investigation devoted to the earthquake-induced displacements of retaining walls with submerged backfills. This paper focuses on sliding displacements of gravity type seawall retaining a submerged backfill under active earth pressure condition during the earthquakes. The threshold seismic acceleration coefficients required for initiation of sliding and the amount of sliding displacement due to seismic loading are calculated by adopting Newmark’s sliding block method. One of the prime features of the study is the estimation of seismic inertia forces in the submerged soil and wall applying the modified pseudo-dynamic method. The comparison of the results obtained using the proposed analytical formulation with the existing literature found to be in good agreement. A comprehensive parametric study has been conducted to understand the effects of different parameters such as seismic horizontal and vertical acceleration coefficients, soil and wall friction angles, width of the wall, wall inclination and excess pore water pressure ratio.

     

Pseudo-static Analysis of Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall considering Non-linear Failure Surface

The seismic stability of reinforced earth has been investigated in this paper using pseudo-static method of analysis considering horizontal and vertical seismic acceleration with non-linear failure surface. The sliding wedge is divided into a number of horizontal slices to determine the strength and length of the geo-synthetic reinforcement for seismic internal stability of battered face rigid retaining wall supporting c-Φ backfill. Results are presented in graphical form representing the required length of geo-sythetic reinforcement under seismic condition to maintain the internal stability of reinforced soil. The influences of horizontal and vertical seismic acceleration, soil friction angle, cohesion, adhesion and wall inclination angle on the required length of the geo-sythetic reinforcement have been studied. From the present study it is seen that the required length of geo-synthetic reinforcement increases due to increase in the value of seismic accelerations.     

桩板式抗滑挡墙地震响应的振动台试验研究

汶川地震路基震害调查表明,在顺层或堆积体边坡中的桩板式抗滑挡墙具有良好的抗震性能。为了更好地了解该结构的抗震性能和优化抗震设计方法,以大型振动台模型试验为手段对其进行研究。为明确地震作用下桩板式抗滑挡墙的地震响应特性,试验采用缩尺的卧龙台站实测地震波对模型激励。试验结果揭示了土压力沿桩身分布规律、桩体位移和边坡岩土体加速度的地震响应特征。研究表明,地震土压力沿桩身呈非线性分布,竖向地震荷载对水平加速度有放大效果。所以,双向加载时的地震土压力比水平单向加载时大,但二者差距在地震基本烈度VII、VIII度区域不显著。滑坡推力、滑床对桩的土体抗力和桩身位移均与输入地震动峰值加速度成正比,即随着地震动峰值加速度的增加,加速度放大比增大;滑动面材料剪切强度折减,滑坡推力、土体抗力和抗身位移均增大,且增大速率加快。此外,结合试验成果,建议了桩板式抗滑挡墙设计时地震综合影响系数Cz的合理取值,对应地震基本烈度VII、VIII、IX度区分别为0.2、0.35、0.4。试验结果有助于揭示该结构抗震机制,也为其抗震设计提供了可靠依据。     

山东邹城雨山村西南滑坡灾害特征与防治方案

山东邹城雨山村西南滑坡在20世纪50年代发生过滑动,导致部分农田被毁。该滑坡为浅层土质滑坡,滑体成分主要为含碎石粉质粘土,滑带位于含碎石粉质粘土层与基岩接触带,由于人工切坡,滑带在滑坡前缘局部已揭露,滑床为下伏强风化闪长岩。近年来,频繁的人类工程活动导致该滑坡存在重新滑动的可能,为消除该地质灾害隐患,采取了悬臂式挡墙支挡和截排水结合的防治方案,达到了治理效果。     

基于深部监测的滑坡动态特征分析

滑坡监测的目的是获取滑坡变形特征和演变过程。对于一些重要场地,判断其是否存在潜在滑坡时,深部位移监测是最直接和最有成效一种手段。通过在某厂房后坡两个监测断面设置5个深部位移监测孔,根据监测结果对滑坡体的范围、整体活动性、滑动方向、滑动面进行以及滑坡类型进行探讨和分析。监测结果表明:厂房后坡具有牵引式滑动特征,活动性明显; 坡体位移速度较大,雨季有加速变形的特征; 坡体前缘滑面已局部贯通,中、后部滑带也处于蠕动变形状态。     

The mechanism of the 1941 Tsaoling landslide, Taiwan: insight from a 2D discrete element simulation

Tsaoling is located in Southwestern Taiwan, 10 km east of the frontal thrusts of the mountain belt. Five large historical landslide events were recorded from 1862 to 1999. No details of the earliest landslide event (1862) are available, thus this paper deals with the 1941 landslide event. Using the Particle Flow Code in two dimensions (PFC 2D) to simulate the mechanism of the Tsaoling landslide in 1941, this study shows that the landslide block developed cracks and slid down 0.2–1.8 m on the sliding plane. The cracks concentrated in certain zones, which corresponded to future landslide detachment planes. During the vibration simulation, the cracks spread from the shear plane to ground surface. Monitoring the variations of the displacements, velocity, and stress during vibration simulation showed that the peak velocity and stress in the transition zones occurred at 3 s. The displacement of the left part of the block exceeded 1.3 m, and the displacement of the right part was less than 1.3 m during vibration simulation. These results suggest that the left part of the block was pushed down by the right part, ultimately inducing a landslide during an earthquake.     

Performance-based assessment of earthquake-induced catastrophic landslide hazard in liquefiable soils

This paper outlines a methodology for evaluating the likelihood of catastrophic landslide occurrence on gentle slopes in liquefiable soils during earthquake. The approach is based on a modified Newmark sliding block model of assessing the earthquake-induced undrained landslide displacements for conditions of no shear stress reversals on the sliding surface. By employing the shear resistance-displacement relationship from undrained monotonic ring shear tests, the simulation model incorporates the sensitivity of computed displacements to variations in yield acceleration. The proposed approach involves an examination of undrained seismic slope performance under various horizontal seismic waveforms scaled to different specific values of the peak earthquake acceleration. An example problem illustrates how the proposed methodology may be used to demarcate, based on the magnitude of permanent seismic displacement, the levels of low, moderate and high risk of catastrophic landslide on a gentle slope in a saturated cohesionless soil susceptible to liquefaction during earthquake.     

New data and interpretations of the shallow and deep deformation of Huangtupo No. 1 riverside sliding mass during seasonal rainfall and water level fluctuation

The original Badong County, Hubei, China, was mainly below the highest water level of the Three Gorges Reservoir, which is 175 m above sea level. The new downtown of Badong was rebuilt in the Huangtupo area between 1982 and 1991. After detailed geological investigation in the Huangtupo area, four independent landslides were identified, making it one of the largest and most harmful landslide group in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. Since 2003, abundant data have been obtained from the Huangtupo No. 1 sliding mass about rainfall, water level, earth surface deformation and deep deformation. The monitoring data indicate that the earth surface and deep deformation of this landslide is closely related to the seasonal rainfall and water level fluctuation of the reservoir. During increases in the water level, the earth surface deformation velocity decreases, and then increases obviously in the subsequent water level decreasing stage. Because the water level drawdown period overlaps with the rainy season in this area, the earth surface deformation is affected by both rainfall and water level. The deformation velocity of the earth surface caused by rainfall is about 5 mm/month, while that caused by water level decrease is 5–7 mm/month. On the contrary, the deformation velocity of the deep sliding mass accelerates 2 to 3 times faster than average during water level increase. The distinction of surface and deep deformation regulations indicates that the effects of seasonal rainfall and water level fluctuation on the stability of reservoir wading landslides are different. Based on all monitoring data, we also found that the Huangtupo No. 1 riverside sliding mass is creeping seasonally during the seasonal rainfall and periodic reservoir water level fluctuation. The deformation velocities of the east regions of the sliding body indicate acceleration, making these regions even more dangerous.