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Modeling of rainfall-induced landslides using a full-scale flume test

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Abstract

A flume test was conducted to evaluate the failure mechanism of a rainfall-induced landslide and to develop a physically based warning system. The test was performed at full scale to prevent scale effects, and the flume was a rectangular channel that was 20 m long, 4 m wide, and 2.5 m deep. The volumetric water content and the matric suction were measured at various depths to determine the rainfall infiltration into partially saturated soil. The displacement and tilt were measured at the slope surface, and a video camera was installed to record the slope failure. The results showed that the rainfall infiltration caused the volumetric water content to gradually increase and the matric suction to decrease. The resulting decrease in the soil strength caused soil deformation. Thus, the rainfall induced a landslide. The matric suction and the degree of saturation were used to calculate the generalized effective stress of the solid skeleton to develop a warning system. The stress paths were calculated using the effective mean stress and the deviatoric shear stress. The inflection point of the stress paths can be used to define a threshold for a rainfall-induced landslide warning system.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2019R1A6A3A03032125), Main Project of Korea Railroad Research Institute (No. PK2002A1), and National Disaster Management Research Institute (No. NDMI-PR-2020-07-02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Railroad Civil Engineering Division, Korea Railroad Research Institute, Uiwang, 16105, Republic of Korea

    Kwangwoo Lee & Hyunki Kim

  2. Disaster Prevention Research Division, National Disaster Management Research Institute, Ulsan, 44429, Republic of Korea

    Jaewook Suk

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea

    Sangseom Jeong

Authors
  1. Kwangwoo Lee
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  2. Jaewook Suk
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  3. Hyunki Kim
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  4. Sangseom Jeong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hyunki Kim.

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Lee, K., Suk, J., Kim, H. et al. Modeling of rainfall-induced landslides using a full-scale flume test. Landslides 18, 1153–1162 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01563-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01563-8

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