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Mechanisms of wetting-induced loess slope failures

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Abstract

Frequent occurrence of landslides induced by rainfall or irrigation has seriously threatened the urban and rural development in the Loess Plateau, China. The increase in pore water pressure has been identified as a key factor for understanding wetting-induced loess slopes failures. However, experimental studies are limited regarding the increase in pore water pressure of the collapse loess from an initial negative value until failure occurs under constant total stress condition. An old landslide with progressive retreat development at an early stage of the construction of the Lvliang Airport was selected as a case study. Field surveys including exploration wells and boreholes revealed very fresh sliding shear planes and clearly visible cracks, suggesting the creeping movement of the old landslide. In case of heavy rain or long-term rainfall, this old landslide may be resurrected, threatening the stability of the airport site. To examine the mechanism of the failure induced by wetting for this unsaturated loess landslide, loess specimens were taken from the field, followed by performing a series of laboratory tests, including triaxial shear tests at constant matric suctions and wetting tests at constant deviator stresses. The test results revealed that the wetting-induced deformations of the loess included volume and shear deformations, reflecting compression and shearing behaviour induced by wetting. The failure behaviour of the loess along a wetting path was dependent on the stress level and the loss degree of matric suction as well as the hydro-mechanical path, and could be well described by the linear form of the Mohr-Coulomb strength theory. On this basis, the threshold value of the stress level was identified, which could be used to judge whether the wetting-induced failure of the loess occurs. The threshold value of matric suction at failure was also identified to analyse the loss degree of matric suction from stable conditions to failure. The mechanism of the failure of the soil due to wetting revealed from the present study could interpret the rainfall-induced landslide in unsaturated loess.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to express their deep thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Funding

This study received financial support from research grants no. 41630639 provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, no. 2018YFC1504703 provided by the National Key Research and Development Plan, and no. 2018M633559 provided by the Certificate of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Jiading Wang, Dengfei Zhang & Tianfeng Gu

  2. College of Geology and Environment, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Nianqin Wang

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  1. Jiading Wang
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  2. Dengfei Zhang
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Correspondence to Dengfei Zhang.

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Wang, J., Zhang, D., Wang, N. et al. Mechanisms of wetting-induced loess slope failures. Landslides 16, 937–953 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01144-4

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