Abstract
Due to the natural variability of the soil, hydraulic conductivity has significant spatial variability. In the paper, the variability of the hydraulic conductivity is described by assuming that it follows a lognormal distribution. Based on the improved Green–Ampt (GA) model of rainwater infiltration, the analytical expressions of rainwater infiltration into soil with depth and time under heavy rainfall conditions is obtained. The theoretical derivation of rainfall infiltration is verified by numerical simulation, and is used to quantitatively analyze the effect of horizontal variability of the hydraulic conductivity on slope stability. The results show that the variability of the hydraulic conductivity has a significant impact on rainwater infiltration and slope stability. The smaller the coefficient of variation, the more concentrated is the rainwater infiltration at the beginning of rainfall. Accordingly, the wetting front is more obvious, and the safety factor is smaller. At the same time, the higher coefficient of variation has a negative impact on the cumulative infiltration of rainwater. The larger the coefficient of variation, the lower the cumulative rainwater infiltration. The conclusions reveal the influence of the horizontal variation of hydraulic conductivity on rainwater infiltration, and then the influence on slope stability.
Highlights
Hydraulic conductivity is an important factor affecting rainwater infiltration, and inducing landslides
Among all the soil parameters, the hydraulic conductivity shows the strongest variability, and the resulting impact on rainwater infiltration has to be considered in the slope stability analysis
We focus on the quantitative analysis of the influence of horizontal variability of hydraulic conductivity on slope stability
Summary
Hydraulic conductivity is an important factor affecting rainwater infiltration, and inducing landslides. Based on the Monte Carlo method, Qin et al [12] established a model for bedrock layer slope stability considering the variation of hydraulic conductivity, and analyzed the effect of the variation coefficient of hydraulic conductivity and rainfall intensity on the failure probability of landslides. Zhu et al [3] used the fast Fourier transform technique to generate the random field of saturated permeability coefficient, and studied the influence of the variation of the hydraulic conductivity on the slope stability under rainfall conditions based on the Monte Carlo method. Cho [15] developed a one-dimensional random field model based on KL (Karhunen–Loeve) to establish the spatial variability of saturated permeability coefficient, and discussed the failure mechanism of shallow weathered residual soil slope under rainfall conditions. The quantitative analysis of the effect of the horizontal variability of hydraulic conductivity on slope stability is implemented
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