Showing papers in "Engineering Geology in 2014"

TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss relevant technical constraints and data interpretation issues that hamper the use of multi-temporal interferometry (MTI) in landslide assessment, and provide guidelines on how to mitigate MTI technical limitations and avoid erroneous interpretations of radar-derived slope surface deformations.

TL;DR: In this paper, a non-intrusive stochastic finite element method for slope reliability analysis considering spatially variable shear strength parameters is proposed, which does not require the user to modify existing deterministic finite element codes, which provides a practical tool for analyzing slope reliability problems that require complex finite element analysis.

TL;DR: In this paper, the fracture coalescence behavior of red sandstone specimens containing two unparallel fissures under uniaxial compression was investigated, and the authors used particle flow code (PFC2D) to carry out a discrete element modeling (DEM) for fracture behavior.

TL;DR: In this paper, the microstructure evolution of saturated natural loess from a site in Jingyang, China, during triaxial test along two stress paths was investigated using MIP, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ESEM.

TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of structure on shear characteristics of unsaturated loess in Lanzhou city of China was investigated with comparison of variation of shear strength and its parameters between six pairs of the undisturbed and remolded samples.

TL;DR: In this article, a forensic investigation was conducted on 52 mountain highway tunnels after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, and the damage level of inspected tunnels was classified using a new damage evaluation criterion.

TL;DR: In this article, a new laboratory apparatus (CUAPS: curing under applied pressure system) was used to mimic the in-situ CPB conditions to compare the performance of consolidated backfills with unconsolidated conventional moulds (i.e., undrained or drained).

TL;DR: Ghirian et al. as mentioned in this paper investigated the evolution of coupled thermal (T), hydraulic (H), mechanical (M) and chemical (C) properties of underground cemented paste backfill (CPB) by means of experiments with insulated-undrained high columns.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of water on the mechanical behavior of intact Hawkesbury sandstone, a massive rock formation in Sydney, Australia, was investigated under the confining pressures of 4, 10, 18, 18 and 25 MPa.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of wetting-drying cycles on the mechanical behavior of fine-grained soil with different gypsum contents (0, 5, 15 and 25%) was investigated.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of joint length on the shear behavior of rough rock joints using PFC2D was investigated and it was found that the mobilisation of different sized asperities at different scales resulted in the observed scale effect.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed co-seismic landslides and the debris flows induced by rainfalls in the Mianyuan River basin using multi-temporal remote sensing images.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed a preliminary Bim strength criterion, a generalized conceptual empirical approach for predicting the overall strength of unwelded bimrocks and bimsoils.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the changing of physico-mechanical properties of natural building materials including limestone and marbles exposed to different temperatures ranging from room temperature up to 1000°C in the oven.

TL;DR: In this paper, a series of seepage and stability analyses of an infinite slope based on one-dimensional random fields were performed to study the effects of uncertainty due to the spatial heterogeneity of hydraulic conductivity on the failure of unsaturated slopes due to rainfall infiltration.

TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper analyzed the movement of 21 slow moving landslides in the Jurassic red-strata in TGR and found that all these landslides involved two differing processes; one is the sliding process with different shear speeds of soils within the sliding zone (landslide activity), and the other one is in steady state with different durations (dormant state).

TL;DR: In this article, the anisotropic characteristics of columnar basalt formation in the Chinese Baihetan hydropower station, including aspects of the geometrical rock structure, deformation, and strength anisotropy are explored.

TL;DR: In this paper, three extensions to the traditional discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) method are tested to simulate the entire process describing the behavior of landslides induced by reservoir impoundment.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the risk of rainfall induced landslides by assessing the consequence of each failure and showed that a critical spatial correlation length exists at which the risk is a maximum and risk is higher when the failure occurs due to a generation of positive pore water pressure.

TL;DR: In this paper, a 3D model based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is presented to simulate rapid landslide motion across 3D terrain, where artificial viscosity is incorporated into the pressure terms in the momentum equation to dissipate energy to avoid numerical oscillation and particle penetration, thus improving the stability of the numerical results.

TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper investigated the blocking effect on groundwater seepage under different insertion depths of retaining wall in aquifer and found that the effective insertion depth ratio (J ) of a retaining wall of Shanghai aquifer sand is about 70%.

TL;DR: In this paper, a wide-ranging description of mechanical behaviour of volcanic rocks is obtained through a series of uniaxial, triaxial, isotropic and oedometric tests, and of pre-and post-failure non-destructive analyses.

TL;DR: In this article, a general framework for probabilistic landslide hazard analysis is presented, based on the assessment of a landslide onset frequency, a runout frequency for long runout landslides, and the local definition of landslide intensity, which can be expressed through different parameters, according to landslide typology.

TL;DR: In this article, the influence of pore pressure and axial deviatoric stress on the creep mechanical behavior of saturated red sandstone is analyzed quantitatively, which can be better expressed by the nonlinear Hoek-Brown criterion than the linear Mohr-Coulomb criterion.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the driving factors for the interlayer creation and mud pumping phenomena in railway sub-structure and show that the ballast behavior depends on the sub-soil state.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the Dangjiacha landslide and found that it was the liquefaction of the water-saturated loess layer rather than the suspension of silt in the pore-air in the loess that caused the great mobility of this landslide.

TL;DR: In this paper, a study of cracks in a natural rock is extended to dynamic loading conditions, which are then compared with the quasi-static results, and the cracking processes of marble are analyzed.

TL;DR: In this article, an efficient probabilistic method for predicting rainfall-induced slope failures based on Monte Carlo simulation is presented, which can calculate the time-dependent failure probability of the slope during a rainfall infiltration process.

TL;DR: The relationship between type of hydrothermal alteration and rock properties is quite variable and depends on a number of factors including parent rocks, РТ-conditions, chemical composition and type of fluid, and duration of fluid-rock interaction.

TL;DR: In this paper, a Watertightness Assessment Test (WTAT) was applied to the excavation of a deep shaft of the High Speed Train (HST) tunnel in Barcelona, which revealed the presence of thin transmissive layers inside the low hydraulic conductivity materials.