Why Slopes Fail: Landslide Simulation (Water & Pore Pressure)
See exactly how a landslide happens in this geotechnical simulation. As water levels rise, pore water pressure increases, reducing the effective stress and causing the slope to fail.
In this short demonstration, we visualize:
The impact of rising groundwater on slope stability.
The moment of catastrophic soil failure.
Fundamentals of geotechnical engineering and soil mechanics.
#Landslide #GeotechnicalEngineering #SoilMechanics #CivilEngineering #EngineeringSimulation #SlopeStability
Landslides commonly occur on natural slopes after rainfall events. This video explains the mechanism of this natural disaster. Firstly, the slope becomes saturated by rainwater. Prolonged rainfall will also raise the groundwater level. The pore water pressure will build up in the slope, and this will affect the strength of soil mass, which will increase. When this decrease in soil mass strength becomes significant, the stability of the slope will be undermined, leading to landslides. This experiment shows how landslides can happen and what the mechanism is. The slope was made of sand with two thin layers of low-plasticity clay (yellowish colour). Water was gradually introduced on the left-hand side and slowly saturated the slope. We kept the water supply until the slope failed. The slope inclination was about 40 degrees; we tried to make it as steep as possible so that the slope would eventually fail. The sand was in a relatively loose state. #civilengineering #geotechnicalengineering #soilmechanics