International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)
Volume 10, Issue 04, April 2019, pp. 316–323, Article ID: IJCIET_10_04_033
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=10&IType=4
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
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ENGINEERING GEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF
THE LANDSLIDE CAUSES DURING THE
CONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDING
P. V. Kotiukov, I. Yu. Lange
Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology Department
Saint-Petersburg Mining University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
ABSTRACT
The construction of industrial buildings near the slopes is associated with the risk
of landslide development which may threaten the normal functioning of such
structures. Slope stability prediction is a complex task the successful solution of which
is due to the correct choice of the design scheme and its parameters. Analysis of
landslide causes allows geotechnical engineers to identify and correct errors made in
the design, thereby increasing the reliability of the calculations made. This article
discusses a landslide that occurred during the construction of an industrial structure
in the area of widespread swelling soils. The features of geological structure and soil
properties, obtained on the basis of a large amount of experimental data, were
analyzed. Particular attention is paid to shear strength parameters of soils in the
conditions of their swelling. It is shown that soils are sensitive with additional
moisture. According to the field and laboratory studies as well as the reverse
calculation of the slope stability, the shear strength parameters of soils were adjusted.
The recommendations to improve the stability of the slope were given.
Key words: Landslide Causes, Slope Failure, Engineering Geological Conditions,
Swelling Soils, Shear Strength, Reverse Calculations.
Cite this Article: P. V. Kotiukov, I. Yu. Lange, Engineering Geological Analysis of
the Landslide Causes During the Construction of Industrial Building, International
Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology 10(4), 2019, pp. 316–323.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=10&IType=4
1. INTRODUCTION
The construction of metallurgical industry facilities is associated with the need to ensure the
safety of the main technological processes [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Many reagents and reaction products
formed in these processes are hazardous substances, and therefore special requirements are
placed on the environment [6, 7, 8]. The elimination of slope failure is associated with high
material costs [9, 10]. In the construction of industrial buildings, the geotechnical engineers
often have to use areas with complex terrain, where it is necessary to form slopes. In the
design of structures located near slopes, special attention is paid to the prediction of their
stability. The reliability of slope stability forecast is determined by the following main factors:
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Engineering Geological Analysis of the Landslide Causes During the Construction of Industrial
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1) an appropriateness of slope stability analysis method to the specific engineering and
geological conditions; 2) a correctness of the failure surface drawing in accordance with
morphology of slope, its geological structure, hydrogeological situation and other features; 3)
an accuracy of the use of soil parameters in the calculations, taking into account their possible
deconsolidation and additional moistening; 4) a consideration of developing a variety of
natural and man-made processes during the construction and exploitation of a building and
their impact on the slope stability. An analysis of landslide causes makes it possible to
identify design errors associated with under-counting of one or several of the above factors.
Studying the shape and position of the failure surface in field conditions by drilling and
inspecting the landslide body allows verifying the correctness of previously selected
calculation scheme. Reverse calculations makes it possible to estimate the accuracy of the soil
strength parameters which was used at the design stage. Using such data allows improving the
accuracy of calculations in the future and ensuring the stability of slopes in similar
geotechnical conditions.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE LANDSLIDE
The construction site is located on the slope of the river valley. Geological structure and
structural-tectonic conditions of this territory are characterized as very complicated. Directly
on the site, the soils are presented by sandy-clayey deposits of the Pliocene (Cimmerian) and
Quaternary age.
One of the main factors determining the construction conditions is the relief of the site.
The range of altitude marks was more than 20 meters that required the territory planning,
excavation and cutting of natural slopes. This was followed by the forming of internal and
external man-made slopes. One of the largest external slopes with a height of 15 meters was
located at the western boundary of the site in the immediate proximity to the industrial
building. The slope was divided into two benches by a small berm. The angle of benches
varied from 28 to 32 degrees. Five meters from the edge of the slope, a drainage trench
collecting rainwater was dug. At the same time, on a significant area higher up the slope, the
natural surface was disturbed and the soil-vegetation layer was removed.
At the end of July 2013, there was the strongest rainfall in the area of work that flooded
excavations, damaged roads and partially eroded unfortified slopes. Water during rainfall
flooded the drainage trench, forming washouts in its sides, and also filtered into soils with a
removed soil cover.
In September, in one and a half months after the rainfall, the first landslide deformations
were detected. First of all, an extended breakaway crack which captured a part of the drainage
trench above 100 meters in a length was formed (Figure 1). It was accompanied by a slight
vertical displacement of the landslide body. A month later, the vertical displacement of the
landslide masses reached up to 4 meters, and the position of the breakaway crack was shifted
to the west by a distance of 6 to 30 meters in different parts of the slope. The soil in the base
of slope was squeezed out. Landslide deformations had been continued for the period of
observations, which lasted more than six months. At the end of observations the total length
of the landslide body was about 165 meters.
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Figure 1. Main scarp of the landslide and drainage trench failure
To answer the question of the landslide causes and to develop the recommendations of its
stabilization, it is necessary to analyze in detail the features of composition, condition and
properties of the soils of which the slope consist.
3. ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERING GEOLOGICAL CONDITIONS
This paragraph is based on the analysis of integrated geotechnical studies, including field,
survey work and cameral processing of data using modern methods [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16].
The slope is composed mainly of lean and fat clays with thickness up to 30 m (Figure 2).
Groundwater occurs sporadically and confined to sandy interlayers, and it was not identified
within the study area during survey. In the upper part of the soil massif, the predominant
consistency of clay soils is very stiff while in the lower part it is stiff that is associated with an
increase in the water content and degree of water saturation of soils with depth (Table 1). It
should be noted that the porosity coefficient increases with depth which indicates that the
soils in the lower part are less compacted than in the upper part. In addition, a high content of
carbonate compounds in soils forms hard cementation bonds, as evidenced by analyzes of
water extracts and the presence of carbonate formations in cracks and pores.
Figure 2. Geological cross-section of the slope with the landslide body
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Engineering Geological Analysis of the Landslide Causes During the Construction of Industrial
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Table 1 Physical properties of the soils
Layer
Water
content, W
Density, ρ
(g/m3)
Void ratio, e
Swelling
strain, εsw
1
Very stiff lean clay
0.14-0.18
0.16
1.87-2.07
2.01
0.517-0.631
0.559
n/a
2
Stiff lean clay
0.18-0.24
0.21
1.88-2.13
2.02
0.508-0.735
0.621
0.07-0.134
0.105
3
Stiff fat clay
0.22-0.33
0.29
1.86-2.00
1.94
0.669-1.151
0.808
0.041-0.118
0.082
#
Note: the numerator shows the range of values, and the denominator - the average value
Special attention must be focused on a distinctive feature of these clay soils that is their
ability to swell. It is promoted by a number of factors: 1) a high content of clay fraction (from
20 to 40%) in the composition of which there appear to be highly active clay minerals of the
montmorillonite group; 2) the predominance of sodium and potassium ions in the composition
of exchange cations, as indicated by the analyzes of aqueous extracts from soils, 3) textural
features - the presence of sandy and silty interlayers contributing to faster filtration of water
deep into the massif; 4) increased fracturing of very stiff and stiff clay soils associated with
weathering. The laboratory studies have shown that the free swelling of such soils is about
0.08-0.1 (average swelling). The swelling pressure in this case reaches up to 0.1 MPa and
higher which corresponds to a thickness of the swelling zone of 5-10 m. It is known that
swelling of soils is accompanied by the destruction of their structural bonds and leads to a
sharp decrease in the parameters of shear strength, which has fundamental importance for
assessing the stability of the slope [17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22].
The parameters of shear strength were obtained from the results of direct shear tests which
were carried out according to the following schemes: 1) on water-saturated specimens (the
preliminary watering was under load that prevented the soil swelling) in the unconsolidated
state; 2) on additionally moistened samples along the prepared shear surface. This made it
possible to estimate the effect of the destruction of structural bonds after additional soil
moistening on their strength parameters. The results of these studies are summarized in Table
2.
Table 2 Parameters of the soil strength using direct shear test
#
Layer
Pre-moistened (under
load) samples in the
unconsolidated state
Prepared and
moistened surface
(residual strength)
c, MPa
φ°
c, MPa
φ°
Sensitivity
1
Very stiff lean clay
0.076
16
0.022
12
2.85
2
Stiff lean clay
0.040
16
0.015
10
3
3
Stiff fat clay
0.083
12
0.017
5
4.46
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These studies have shown that all types of clay soils are sensitive to water. This indicates
the important role of cementation bonds in the formation of their strength. The soils of the
third layer turned out to be the weakest and most sensitive which, with additional moistening,
turn into a state close to quasi-plastic (φ → 0) (Figure 3) [23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28].
Figure 3. Shear strength diagram for the stiff fat clay (Layer 3)
At the design stage, the shear strength values obtained from unconsolidated tests were
recommended for calculations. The results of calculations with such parameters showed that
the slope will be in a steady state. The accident that has occurred has shown that the slope
angles taken on the basis of the calculation were unreasonably large. In this regard, the slopes
were not strengthened and due attention was not paid to the organization of the surface
drainage system. As a result, on one of the slopes there was a landslide about 160 m long,
which was described in more detail earlier.
4. RESULTS OF SLOPE CALCULATIONS
In order to answer the question of what parameters should be used in the design, it is
necessary to perform reverse calculations [29, 30, 31]. The geotechnical section, the size of
the primary landslide body and the position of the sliding surface were obtained from the
result of field work (surveying, drilling of wells). The resulting calculation scheme is shown
in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Landslide calculation scheme
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The landslide body was divided into slices. Within each of them, shear and restraining
forces were calculated. The calculation of soil cohesion was performed using the below
formula:
∑
∑
∑
where Fs - the given factor of safety, Ti - shear forces, Ni - restraining forces, φ - angle of
internal friction, li - slice length. The calculations were performed for different values of the
angle of internal friction. The results showed that the averaged shear strength parameters
along the sliding surface are: φ = 6°, c = 0.026 MPa. These parameters reflect the residual
strength of soils obtained by laboratory test. From this, it can be concluded that in the process
of additional moistening and swelling of clay soils there was a sharp decrease in the strength
parameters which led to the sliding of the soil massif.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The performed analysis showed that the main cause of the landslide was the use of incorrect
shear strength parameters, which does not correspond to the real strength of swelling soils, in
the slope stability calculations. As a result, the excessively large angles of the slope were
unreasonably chosen and the proper attention was not paid to the organization of the surface
drainage system. In addition, the development of landslide deformations was facilitated by an
increase in the specific gravity of the upper part of the massif as a result of its additional
moistening due to infiltration of rainwater.
To prevent landslide deformations and stabilize the slope, the following preliminary
recommendations can be given:
1) the construction of retaining wall on pile foundation with penetration into stable nonswelling soils, designed for the landslide pressure, taking into account the pressure of
swelling;
2) the organization of surface water drainage with the help of lined drainage ditches along the
perimeter of the slope and at its base, as well as horizontal drains on the surface of the
landslide;
3) the filling of crown cracks at the edge of the slope and in the landslide body to prevent of
water filtration deep into the massif;
4) the slope surface covering with turf or artificial waterproofing material.
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