Analysis of Crack Evolvement and Deformation of Unsaturated Soil Slope

Abstract

Cracks are easily initiated in unsaturated expansive soil slopes due to evaporation process and the development of these cracks affects greatly the deformation and stress of soil slopes due to rainfall infiltration/evaporation. Consolidation theory for unsaturated soils is employed here to investigate crack evolvement and deformation of unsaturated expansive soil slopes. By using reduced suction and introducing a new elastic-plastic constitutive equation of the soil skeleton, the simplified consolidation theory for unsaturated soils are employed and incorporated into an in-house finite element method code. Initial cracking of the soil slopes is simulated and analyzed in detail and then the seepage-deformation analysis for unsaturated soil slope accompanying the initiating of crack is explored using FEM code developed here under evaporation conditions and rainfall infiltration.