Stability Analysis of Slopes subjected to rapid water level drawdown considering analytical solutions to the seepage problem

Resumo

The stability analysis of a saturated soil slope subjected to seepage flow generated by rapid water level drawdown is investigated in this study by means of the limit analysis kinematic approach.  Adopting the framework of effective stresses for formulating the strength failure condition of the saturated porous medium, it is shown that the effect of seepage flow can be accounted for in the stability analysis by means of driving body forces computed from the gradient of pore pressure distribution. The hydraulic boundary value problem governing the water filtration velocity is addressed by resorting to a specific analytical variational approach. Comparisons with traditional pore pressure coefficient methods and finite element analyses demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. Numerical analyses are conducted to explore the influence of hydraulic-related parameters, highlighting in particular the critical effects of water drawdown height and soil permeability anisotropy.