TY - JOUR
T1 - Large-scale physical modelling of static liquefaction in gentle submarine slopes
AU - Maghsoudloo, Arash
AU - Askarinejad, Amin
AU - de Jager, Richard R.
AU - Molenkamp, Frans
AU - Hicks, Michael A.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Planning a monitoring campaign for a natural submarine slope prone to static liquefaction is a challenging task due to the sudden nature of flow slides. Therefore, gaining a better insight by monitoring the changes in pore pressure and acceleration of the soil mass, prior to and at the onset of static liquefaction, of submerged model slopes in the laboratory, helps in quantifying the minimum required triggering levels and ultimately the development of effective margins of safety for this specific failure mechanism. This study presents a set of physical model tests of submarine flow slides in the large-scale GeoTank (GT) of Delft University of Technology, in which a tilting mechanism was employed to trigger static liquefaction in loosely packed sand layers. Novel sensors were developed to locally monitor the hydro-mechanical soil responses acting as precursors of the onset of instability. The measurements indicated that soil instability can initiate at overly gentle slope angles (6–10°) and generate significant excess pore water pressures that intensify the deformations to form a flow slide. Moreover, it was observed that the onset of instability and its propagation are highly dependent on the rate of shear stress change and the state of the soil. The obtained data can be used for the future validation of numerical models for submarine flow slides.
AB - Planning a monitoring campaign for a natural submarine slope prone to static liquefaction is a challenging task due to the sudden nature of flow slides. Therefore, gaining a better insight by monitoring the changes in pore pressure and acceleration of the soil mass, prior to and at the onset of static liquefaction, of submerged model slopes in the laboratory, helps in quantifying the minimum required triggering levels and ultimately the development of effective margins of safety for this specific failure mechanism. This study presents a set of physical model tests of submarine flow slides in the large-scale GeoTank (GT) of Delft University of Technology, in which a tilting mechanism was employed to trigger static liquefaction in loosely packed sand layers. Novel sensors were developed to locally monitor the hydro-mechanical soil responses acting as precursors of the onset of instability. The measurements indicated that soil instability can initiate at overly gentle slope angles (6–10°) and generate significant excess pore water pressures that intensify the deformations to form a flow slide. Moreover, it was observed that the onset of instability and its propagation are highly dependent on the rate of shear stress change and the state of the soil. The obtained data can be used for the future validation of numerical models for submarine flow slides.
KW - Loose sands
KW - Onset of instability
KW - Physical modelling
KW - Static liquefaction
KW - Submarine flow slides
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109176837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10346-021-01705-6
DO - 10.1007/s10346-021-01705-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85109176837
SN - 1612-510X
VL - 18
SP - 3315
EP - 3335
JO - Landslides
JF - Landslides
IS - 10
ER -