Combined influence of rotated transverse anisotropy in mechanical parameters and hydraulic conductivity of soils on reliability evaluation of an unsaturated slope under rainfalls

Abstract

Natural slopes often exhibit tilted stratification with rotated transverse anisotropy in multiple soil properties, including the mechanical (e.g., friction angle φ and cohesion c) and hydraulic properties (e.g., saturated hydraulic conductivity ks). This phenomenon indicates that to achieve an accurate assessment of slope reliability under rainfall infiltration, the anisotropic spatial variation of the shear strength parameters and ks should be incorporated in a combined manner. Thus, this paper discusses the combined influence of rotated transverse anisotropy in the shear strength parameters and ks on the reliability and failure mechanism of an unsaturated slope under rainfalls. It is found that for a slope with tilted stratification, the failure mechanism and reliability estimator are dominantly influenced by the rotated transverse anisotropy in the shear strength parameters, while the influence induced by that in ks is slight. In particular, only incorporating the rotated transverse anisotropy in ks may lead to an incorrect reliability estimator of a slope with tilted stratification. Herein, the reliability index β would be estimated to be dramatically higher, and β of a slope with horizontal bedding would be higher than that of an anti-dip slope, which is inconsistent with the engineering experiences. Nonetheless, the rotated transverse anisotropy in ks should not be ignored in slope reliability assessment, because ignoring the rotated transverse anisotropy in ks would lead to overestimation of the reliability index β, which is adverse to the safety design of a slope.