Fundamental Theroy and Experimental Research

Shear strength degradation and slope stability of soils at hydro-fluctuation belt of river bank slope during drying-wetting cycle

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  • Key Laboratory of Geological Hazards on Three Gorges Reservoir Area, Ministry of Education, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei 443002, China

Received date: 2015-10-05

  Online published: 2018-06-05

Supported by

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2015CFA140), the National Nature Science foundation of China (51439003) and the National Nature Science foundation of China (51679127).

Abstract

After the impoundment and operation of reservoirs, the water level changes slowly or rapidly between the flood control water level of 145 m and the impoundment water level of 175 m every year. Rock and earth mass in the hydro-fluctuation belt is under cycle of drying-wetting conditions for a long time. The degradation of mechanical properties direct impacts on deformation stability of the bank slope. In this study, the experiments of testing under drying-wetting conditions are designed and conducted on the soils from the typical hydro-fluctuation belt. The results indicate that: 1) Shear strength of soil degrades under drying-wetting conditions. Specifically, shear strength deteriorates 75% by the first 4 cycles of the drying-wetting, and gradually becomes stable afterwards. 2) During the drying-wetting cycle, the internal microscopic cracks of the soil samples open and close repetitively, and then gradually grow and assemble; dense soil samples gradually loosen with increasing internal cracks. 3) Considering the degradation of soil properties during the drying-wetting cycles in hydro-fluctuation belt, the local safety factor of slope will degrade accordingly. The local slide and the developed cracks can be easily observed near the hydro-fluctuation belt in field investigation. The findings in this article can provide good reference for long-term deformation and stability evaluation on slopes in hydro-fluctuation belt.

Cite this article

DENG Hua-feng, XIAO Yao, FANG Jing-cheng, ZHANG Heng-bin, WANG Chen-xi-jie, CAO Yi . Shear strength degradation and slope stability of soils at hydro-fluctuation belt of river bank slope during drying-wetting cycle[J]. Rock and Soil Mechanics, 2017 , 38(9) : 2629 -2638 . DOI: 10.16285/j.rsm.2017.09.021

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