The microscopic characterization of isolated bubbles in gassy soil plays an important role in the macroscopic physical properties of sediments and is a key factor in the study of geological hazards in gas-bearing stra...The microscopic characterization of isolated bubbles in gassy soil plays an important role in the macroscopic physical properties of sediments and is a key factor in the study of geological hazards in gas-bearing strata.Based on the box-counting method and the pore fractal features in porous media,a fractal model of bubble microstructure parameters in gassy soil under different gas con-tents and vertical load conditions is established by using an industrial X-ray CT scanning system.The results show that the fractal di-mension of bubbles in the sample is correlated with the volume fraction of bubbles,and it is also restricted by the vertical load.The three-dimensional fractal dimension of the sample is about 1 larger than the average two-dimensional fractal dimension of all the slices from the same sample.The uniform porous media fractal model is used to test the equivalent diameter,and the results show that the variation of the measured pore diameter ratio is jointly restricted by the volume fraction and the vertical load.In addition,the measured self-similarity interval of the bubble area distribution is tested by the porous media fractal capillary bundle model,and the fitting curve of measured pore area ratio in a small loading range is obtained in this paper.展开更多
Salinization and desertification are closely related to water-salt migration caused by a temperature gradient.Based on the Darcy Law of unsaturated soils,the law of energy conservation and the law of mass conservation...Salinization and desertification are closely related to water-salt migration caused by a temperature gradient.Based on the Darcy Law of unsaturated soils,the law of energy conservation and the law of mass conservation,the thermal-water-salt coupling mathematical model of unsaturated frozen saline soil was established.The model considered the latent heat of phase change,crystallization impedance,crystallization consumption and complete precipitation of solute crystallization in ice.In order to verify the rationality of the model,the unidirectional freezing test of unsaturated saline soil was carried out in an open system with no-pressure water supplement to obtain the spatial distribution of temperature,moisture and salt in the saline soil.Finally,numerical simulations are implemented with the assistance of COMSOL Multiphysics.Validation of the model is illustrated by comparisons between the simulation and experimental data.The results demonstrated that the temperature within saline soil changes with time and can be divided into three stages,namely quick freezing stage,transitional stage and stable stage.The water and salt contents in the freezing zone are layered,with peak values at the freezing front.The coupled model could reveal the heat-mass migration mechanism of unsaturated frozen saline soil and dynamically describe the freezing depth and the movement law of the freezing front,ice and salt crystal formation mechanism,and the change law of thermal conductivity and permeability coefficient.展开更多
Unsaturated expansive soil is widely distributed in China and has complex engineering properties.This paper proposes the unified hydraulic effect shear strength theory of unsaturated expansive soil based on the effect...Unsaturated expansive soil is widely distributed in China and has complex engineering properties.This paper proposes the unified hydraulic effect shear strength theory of unsaturated expansive soil based on the effective stress principle,swelling force principle,and soil–water characteristics.Considering the viscoelasticity and structural damage of unsaturated expansive soil during loading,a fractional hardening–damage model of unsaturated expansive soil was established.The model parameters were established on the basis of the proposed calculation method of shear strength and the triaxial shear experiment on unsaturated expansive soil.The proposed model was verified by the experimental data and a traditional damage model.The proposed model can satisfactorily describe the entire process of the strain-hardening law of unsaturated expansive soil.Finally,by investigating the damage variables of the proposed model,it was found that:(a)when the values of confining pressure and matric suction are close,the coupling of confining pressure and matric suction contributes more to the shear strength;(b)there is a damage threshold for unsaturated expansive soil,and is mainly reflected by strength criterion of infinitesimal body;(c)the strain hardening law of unsaturated expansive soil is mainly reflected by fractional derivative operator.展开更多
In practical engineering,the total vertical stress in the soil layer is not constant due to stress diffusion,and varies with time and depth.Therefore,the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of stress di...In practical engineering,the total vertical stress in the soil layer is not constant due to stress diffusion,and varies with time and depth.Therefore,the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of stress diffusion on the two-dimensional(2D)plane strain consolidation properties of unsaturated soils when the stress varies with time and depth.A series of semi-analytical solutions in terms of excess pore air and water pressures and settlement for 2D plane strain consolidation of unsaturated soils can be derived with the joint use of Laplace transform and Fourier sine series expansion.Then,the inverse Laplace transform of the semi-analytical solution is given in the time domain using a self-programmed code based on Crump’s method.The reliability of the obtained solutions is proved by the degeneration.Finally,the 2D plots of excess pore pressures and the curves of settlement varying with time,considering different physical parameters of unsaturated soil stratum and depth-dependent stress,are depicted and analyzed to study the 2D plane strain consolidation properties of unsaturated soils subjected to the depthdependent stress.展开更多
A comparison between deep learning and standalone models in predicting the compaction parameters of soil is presented in this research.One hundred and ninety and fifty-three soil samples were randomly picked up from t...A comparison between deep learning and standalone models in predicting the compaction parameters of soil is presented in this research.One hundred and ninety and fifty-three soil samples were randomly picked up from two hundred and forty-three soil samples to create training and validation datasets,respectively.The performance and accuracy of the models were measured by root mean square error(RMSE),coefficient of determination(R2),Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient(r),mean absolute error(MAE),variance accounted for(VAF),mean absolute percentage error(MAPE),weighted mean absolute percentage error(WMAPE),a20-index,index of scatter(IOS),and index of agreement(IOA).Comparisons between standalone models demonstrate that the model MD 29 in Gaussian process regression(GPR)and model MD 101 in support vector machine(SVM)can achieve over 96%of accuracy in predicting the optimum moisture content(OMC)and maximum dry density(MDD)of soil,and outperformed other standalone models.The comparison between deep learning models shows that the models MD 46 and MD 146 in long short-term memory(LSTM)predict OMC and MDD with higher accuracy than ANN models.However,the LSTM models outperformed the GPR models in predicting the compaction parameters.The sensitivity analysis illustrates that fine content(FC),specific gravity(SG),and liquid limit(LL)highly influence the prediction of compaction parameters.展开更多
Generally, most soil slope failures are induced by rainfall infiltration, a process that involves interactions between the liquid phase, gas phase,and solid skeleton in an unsaturated soil slope. In this study, a loos...Generally, most soil slope failures are induced by rainfall infiltration, a process that involves interactions between the liquid phase, gas phase,and solid skeleton in an unsaturated soil slope. In this study, a loosely coupled liquid-gas-solid three-phase model, linking two numerical codes,TOUGH2/EOS3, which is used for water-air two-phase flow analysis, and FLAC^(3D), which is used for mechanical analysis, was established. The model was validated through a documented water drainage experiment over a sandy column and a comparison of the results with measured data and simulated results from other researchers. The proposed model was used to investigate the features of water-air two-phase flow and stress fields in an unsaturated soil slope during rainfall infiltration. The slope stability analysis was then performed based on the simulated water-air two-phase seepage and stress fields on a given slip surface. The results show that the safety factor for the given slip surface decreases first, then increases, and later decreases until the rainfall stops. Subsequently, a sudden rise occurs. After that, the safety factor decreases continually and reaches its lowest value, and then increases slowly to a steady value. The lowest value does not occur when the rainfall stops, indicating a delayed effect of the safety factor. The variations of the safety factor for the given slip surface are therefore caused by a combination of pore-air pressure, matric suction, normal stress, and net normal stress.展开更多
A constitutive model of unsaturated soils with coupling capillary hysteresis and skeleton deformation is developed and implemented in a fully coupled transient hydro-mechanical finite-element model(computer code U-DYS...A constitutive model of unsaturated soils with coupling capillary hysteresis and skeleton deformation is developed and implemented in a fully coupled transient hydro-mechanical finite-element model(computer code U-DYSAC2).The obtained results are compared with experimental results,showing that the proposed constitutive model can simulate the main mechanical and hydraulic behavior of unsaturated soils in a unified framework.The non-linearity of the soil-water characteristic relation is treated in a similar way of elastoplasticity.Two constitutive relations are integrated by an implicit return-mapping scheme similar to that developed for saturated soils.A consistent tangential modulus is derived to preserve the asymptotic rate of the quadratic convergence of Newton's iteration.Combined with the integration of the constitutive model,a complete finite-element formulation of coupling hydro-mechanical problems for unsaturated soils is presented.A number of practical problems with different given initial and boundary conditions are analyzed to illustrate the performance and capabilities of the finite-element model.展开更多
The non-linear constitutive model suggested by the authors and the Alonso' s elasto-plasticity model of unsaturated soil modified by the authors are introduced into the consolidation theory of ursaturated soil pro...The non-linear constitutive model suggested by the authors and the Alonso' s elasto-plasticity model of unsaturated soil modified by the authors are introduced into the consolidation theory of ursaturated soil proposed by CHEN Zheng-han, and the non-linear and the elasto-plasticity consolidation models of unsaturated soil are obtained. Programs related to the two consolidation models are designed, and a 2-D consolidation problem of unsaturated soil is solved using the programs , the consolidation process and the development of plastic zone under multi-grade load are studied. The above research develops the consolidation theory of unsaturated soil to a new level.展开更多
Two modifications for the basic Barcelona model(BBM) are present. One is the replacement of the net stress by the average skeleton stress in unsaturated soil modeling, and the other is the adoption of an expression fo...Two modifications for the basic Barcelona model(BBM) are present. One is the replacement of the net stress by the average skeleton stress in unsaturated soil modeling, and the other is the adoption of an expression for the load-collapse(LC) yield surface that can match flexibly the normal compression lines at different suctions. The predictions of the modified BBM for the controlled-suction triaxial test on the unsaturated compacted clay are presented and compared with the experimental results. A good agreement between the predicted and experimental results demonstrates the reasonability of the modified BBM. On this basis, the coupled processes of groundwater flow and soil deformation in a homogeneous soil slope under a long heavy rainfall are simulated with the proposed elasto-plastic model. The numerical results reveal that the failure of a slope under rainfall infiltration is due to both the reduction of soil suction and the significant rise in groundwater table. The evolution of the displacements is greatly related to the change of suction. The maximum collapse deformation happens near the surface of slope where infiltrated rainwater can quickly reach. The results may provide a helpful reference for hazard assessment and control of rainfall-induced landslides.展开更多
Unsaturated soil is a three-phase media and is composed of soil grain,water andgas.In this paper,the consolidation problem of unsaturated soil is investigated basedon the theory of mixture.A theoretical formula of eff...Unsaturated soil is a three-phase media and is composed of soil grain,water andgas.In this paper,the consolidation problem of unsaturated soil is investigated basedon the theory of mixture.A theoretical formula of effective stress on anisotropicporous media and unsaturated soil is derived.The principle of effective stress and theprinciple of Curie symmetry are taken as two fundamental constitutive principles ofunsaturated soil.A mathematical model of consolidation of unsaturated soil isproposed,which consists of25 partial differenfial equations with25 unknowns.Withthe help of increament linearizing method,the model is reduced to5 governingequations with5 unknowns,i.e.,the three displacement components of solid phase,thepore water pressure and the pore gas pressure.7 material parameters are involved inthe model and all of them can be measured using soil tests.It is convenient to use themodel to engineering practice.The well known Biot’s theory is a special case of themodel.展开更多
Canopy effect refers to the phenomenon in which moisture accumulates underneath an impervious cover.A canopy effect can lead to full saturation of the soil underneath the impervious cover.A recent theoretical study se...Canopy effect refers to the phenomenon in which moisture accumulates underneath an impervious cover.A canopy effect can lead to full saturation of the soil underneath the impervious cover.A recent theoretical study separates the canopy effect into two types.The first one is caused by evaporation-condensation in unsaturated soils,while the second one is induced by freezing-enhanced vapour transfer in unsaturated soils.To validate experimentally these two types of canopy effect and to reveal their mechanisms,moisture-migration experiments were carried out,using a newly developed laboratory apparatus for unsaturated frozen soils.Six conditions were applied to the calcareous sand,with different initial water contents and boundary temperatures.The results show that water content in the upper portion of the sample increased under an upward temperature gradient,and the increment of water content was greater if the soil was subjected to freezing.For the freezing cases,the depth of the peak water content was in line with the freezing front.And the greater the initial water content,the more the water content accumulated at the freezing front.However,a lower cooling rate seemed to facilitate vapour migration.For the unfrozen cases,the water content in the upper portion of the sample also increased;and the increases became more apparent with a higher initial moisture content.The temperature gradient can also inhibit the vapour migration.A less steep temperature gradient always resulted in a more notable inhibition effect.Test results seem to verify the theory of the canopy effect.展开更多
The breakdown of soil aggregates under rainfall and their abrasion in overland flow are important processes in water erosion due to the production of more fine and transportable particles and,the subsequent significan...The breakdown of soil aggregates under rainfall and their abrasion in overland flow are important processes in water erosion due to the production of more fine and transportable particles and,the subsequent significant effect on the erosion intensity.Currently,little is known about the effects of sediment load on the soil aggregate abrasion and the relationship of this abrasion with some related hydraulic parameters.Here,the potential effects of sediment load on soil aggregate abrasion and hydraulic parameters in overland flow were investigated through a series of experiments in a 3.8-m-long hydraulic flume at the slope gradients of 8.7 and 26.8%,unit flow discharges from 2×10^-3 to 6×10^-3 m^2 s^-1,and the sediment concentration from 0 to 110 kg m-3.All the aggregates from Ultisols developed Quaternary red clay,Central China.The results indicated that discharge had the most significant(P<0.01)effect on the aggregates abrasion with the contributions of 58.76 and 60.34%,followed by sediment feed rate,with contributions of 39.66 and 34.12%at the slope gradients of 8.7 and 26.8%,respectively.The abrasion degree of aggregates was found to increase as a power function of the sediment concentration.Meanwhile,the flow depth,friction factor,and shear stress increased as a power function along with the increase of sediment concentration at different slope gradients and discharges.Reynolds number was obviously affected by sediment concentration and it decreased as sediment concentration increased.The ratio of the residual weight to the initial weight of soil aggregates(Wr/Wi)was found to increase as the linear function with an increasing flow depth(P=0.008)or Reynolds number(P=0.002)in the sediment-laden flow.The Wr/Wi values followed a power function decrease with increasing friction factor or shear stress in the sediment-laden flow,indicating that friction factor is the best hydraulic parameter for prediction of soil aggregate abrasion under different sediment load conditions.The information regarding the soil aggregate abrasion under various sediment load conditions can facilitate soil process-based erosion modeling.展开更多
The non_linear constitutive model suggested by the authors and the Alonso’s elasto_plasticity model of unsaturated soil modified by the authors are introduced into the consolidation theory of unsaturated soil propose...The non_linear constitutive model suggested by the authors and the Alonso’s elasto_plasticity model of unsaturated soil modified by the authors are introduced into the consolidation theory of unsaturated soil proposed by CHEN Zheng_han, and the non_linear and the elasto_plasticity consolidation models of unsaturated soil are obtained. Programs related to the two consolidation models are designed, and a 2_D consolidation problem of unsaturated soil is solved using the programs, the consolidation process and the development of plastic zone under multi_grade load are studied. The above research develops the consolidation theory of unsaturated soil to a new level.展开更多
In order to investigate the corrosion mechanism of recycled reinforced concrete (RRC) under harsh environments,four recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) contents were selected,and saline soil was used as an electrolyte to ...In order to investigate the corrosion mechanism of recycled reinforced concrete (RRC) under harsh environments,four recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) contents were selected,and saline soil was used as an electrolyte to perform electrified accelerated corrosion experiments.The relative dynamic elastic modulus and relative corrosion current density were considered to describe the deterioration law of the RRC in saline soil.The results indicated that as the energization time increased,the corrosion current density,corrosion potential,and polarization resistance of the steel bar decreased gradually.Compared with ordinary reinforced concrete,when the RCA content was 30%,the ability of the RRC to resist corrosion was improved slightly;however,when the RCA content exceeded 30%,the corrosion resistance of the RRC deteriorated rapidly.Scanning electron microscopy revealed that for a dense RRC,less corrosion products were generated in the pores inside the concrete and on the surface of the steel bar.X-ray diffraction results indicated that SO_(4)^(2-) can generate ettringite and other corrosion products,along with volume expansion.The main corrosion products generated on the surface of the steel bars included Fe_(2)O_(3),Fe_(3)O_(4) and FeO(OH),which were the corrosion products generated by steel bars under natural environments.Therefore,using saline soil as an electrolyte is more consistent with the actual service environments of RRC.Both the relative dynamic mode and relative corrosion current density of the degradation parameters conform to the Weibull distribution;furthermore,the relative dynamic mode is more sensitive and the corresponding reliability curve can better describe the degradation law of RRC under saline soil environments.展开更多
This paper analyzes a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of unsaturated soils based on the theory of mixtures.Unsaturated soil is considered as a mixture composed of soil skeleton,liquid water,vapor,dry air,and ...This paper analyzes a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of unsaturated soils based on the theory of mixtures.Unsaturated soil is considered as a mixture composed of soil skeleton,liquid water,vapor,dry air,and dissolved air.In addition to the mass and momentum conservation equations of each component and the energy conservation equation of the mixture,the system is closed using other 37 constitutive (or restriction) equations.As the change in water chemical potential is identical to the change in vapor chemical potential,a thermodynamic restriction relationship for the phase transition between pore water and pore vapor is formulated,in which the impact of the change in gas pressure on the phase transition is taken into account.Six final governing equations are given in incremental form in terms of six primary variables,i.e.,three displacement components of soil skeleton,water pressure,gas pressure,and temperature.The processes involved in the coupled model include thermal expansions of soil skeleton and soil particle,Soret effect,phase transition between water and vapor,air dissolution in pore water,and deformation of soil skeleton.展开更多
Model parameters estimation is a pivotal issue for runoff modeling in ungauged catchments.The nonlinear relationship between model parameters and catchment descriptors is a major obstacle for parameter regionalization...Model parameters estimation is a pivotal issue for runoff modeling in ungauged catchments.The nonlinear relationship between model parameters and catchment descriptors is a major obstacle for parameter regionalization,which is the most widely used approach.Runoff modeling was studied in 38 catchments located in the Yellow–Huai–Hai River Basin(YHHRB).The values of the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient(NSE),coefficient of determination(R2),and percent bias(PBIAS)indicated the acceptable performance of the soil and water assessment tool(SWAT)model in the YHHRB.Nine descriptors belonging to the categories of climate,soil,vegetation,and topography were used to express the catchment characteristics related to the hydrological processes.The quantitative relationships between the parameters of the SWAT model and the catchment descriptors were analyzed by six regression-based models,including linear regression(LR)equations,support vector regression(SVR),random forest(RF),k-nearest neighbor(kNN),decision tree(DT),and radial basis function(RBF).Each of the 38 catchments was assumed to be an ungauged catchment in turn.Then,the parameters in each target catchment were estimated by the constructed regression models based on the remaining 37 donor catchments.Furthermore,the similaritybased regionalization scheme was used for comparison with the regression-based approach.The results indicated that the runoff with the highest accuracy was modeled by the SVR-based scheme in ungauged catchments.Compared with the traditional LR-based approach,the accuracy of the runoff modeling in ungauged catchments was improved by the machine learning algorithms because of the outstanding capability to deal with nonlinear relationships.The performances of different approaches were similar in humid regions,while the advantages of the machine learning techniques were more evident in arid regions.When the study area contained nested catchments,the best result was calculated with the similarity-based parameter regionalization scheme because of the high catchment density and short spatial distance.The new findings could improve flood forecasting and water resources planning in regions that lack observed data.展开更多
Spatial variation in soil surface CO2 efflux was measured in a stand of Populus euphratica in the Ejina Oasis of desert riparian forest in the extreme arid region in northwestern China from April 2007 through October ...Spatial variation in soil surface CO2 efflux was measured in a stand of Populus euphratica in the Ejina Oasis of desert riparian forest in the extreme arid region in northwestern China from April 2007 through October 2007.Measurements were taken with a gas-exchange analyzer linked to a soil-respiration chamber.The mean soil CO2 efflux in the stand was 2.71 μmol/(m2·s) during the growing season and 1.38 μmol/(m2·s) in the nongrowing season.The seasonal maximum (end of May through early June) andminimum (October) CO2 efflux were 3.38 and 0.69 μmol/(m2·s),respectively.The diurnal fluctuation of CO2 efflux was relatively small (< 20 percent),with theminimum appearing around 05:00 and the maximum around 15:00.Linear regression analysis showed soil-surface CO2 efflux to be most highly correlated with soil temperature (R2=0.435) and soil moisture (R2=0.213).When all variables were considered simultaneously,only soil temperature (R2=0.378),soil moisture (R2=0.147),and root volume density (R2=0.021) explained a significant amount of variance in soil surface CO2 efflux.Stand volumes were not correlated with soil CO2 efflux on our sites.展开更多
The characteristics of soil holding capacity for different shrub-grass patterns are important to research the mechanisms regulating vegetation on slopes.The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics ...The characteristics of soil holding capacity for different shrub-grass patterns are important to research the mechanisms regulating vegetation on slopes.The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics and mecha-nisms of soil erosion and hydraulic parameters under differ-ent vegetation patterns in the Pisha sandstone area of Inner Mongolia on lands of 8°slope gradient.We carried out field scouring experiments on five different shrub-grass patterns as treatments,viz no shrubs(GL),shrubs on the upper part of the slope(SU),middle part of the slope(SM)and lower part of the slope(SL).We designated bare slope(BL)as the control.We employed three different water flow rates(15,20,30 L·min^(−1)).Our results showed that the contribution of plant root systems to slope sediment reduction ranged from 64 to 84%.The root systems proved to be the main contributing factor to reduction of erosion by vegetation.The relationship between soil detachment rate,stream flow power,and flow unit stream power under different scouring discharge rates showed that soil detachment declined in rank order as:BL>GL>SU>SM>SL.The SL pat-tern had the lowest soil detachment rate(0.098 g·m^(−2)·s^(−1)),flow stream power(2.371 W·m^(−2)),flow unit stream power(0.165 m·s^(−1))and flow shear stress(16.986 Pa),and proved to be the best erosion combating pattern.The results of decision coefficient and path analysis showed that stream power was the most important hydraulic parameter for describing soil detachment rate.The combination of stream power and shear stress,namely Dr=0.1ω−0.03τ−0.56(R^(2)=0.924),most accurately simulated the soil detachment characteristics on slopes.Our study suggests that the risk of soil ero-sion can be reduced by planting shrub-grass mixes on these slopes.Under the conditions of limited water resources and economy,the benefit of sediment reduction can be maxi-mized by planting shrubbery on the lower parts of slopes.展开更多
The mechanical behavior of sliding zone soils plays a significant role in landslide. In general, the sliding zone soils are basically in unsaturated state due to rainfall infiltration and reservoir water level fluctua...The mechanical behavior of sliding zone soils plays a significant role in landslide. In general, the sliding zone soils are basically in unsaturated state due to rainfall infiltration and reservoir water level fluctuation. Meanwhile, a large number of examples show that the deformation processes of landslides always take a long period of time, indicating that landslides exhibit a time-dependent property. Therefore, the deformation of unsaturated soils of landslide involves creep behaviors. In this paper, the Burgers creep model for unsaturated soils under triaxial stress state is considered based on the unsaturated soil mechanics. Then, by curve fitting using the least squares method, creep parameters in different matric suction states are obtained based on the creep test data of unsaturated soils in the sliding zones of Qianjiangping landslide. Results show that the predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Finally, to further explore the creep characteristics of the unsaturated soils in sliding zones, the relationships between parameters of the model and matric suction are analyzed and a revised Burgers creep model is developed correspondingly. Simulations on another group of test data are performed by using the modified Burgers creep model and reasonable results are observed.展开更多
The yield criterion parameters of the soil material change with different values of the cohesion and the angle of friction because of sustained rainfall infiltration. Based on the Mohr-Coulomb(M-C) and Drucker-Prager(...The yield criterion parameters of the soil material change with different values of the cohesion and the angle of friction because of sustained rainfall infiltration. Based on the Mohr-Coulomb(M-C) and Drucker-Prager(D-P) yield criteria, some reasonable yield criteria selections were discussed for quantitative analysis of unsaturated soil slope stability. Moreover, a critical point was found at the effective angle of friction equaling to 16.5° by transformation of parameters related to unsaturated soil under sustained rainfall. When the effective angle of friction more than 16.5° through parameter transformation of different yield criteria under natural condition, the calculation result of the safety factor was such that: f(DP1) > f(M-C) > f(equivalent M-C) > f(DP2) > f(DP3). While the effective angle of friction less than 16.5°, through parameter transformation, the safety factors were in the following order: f(DP1) > f(M-C) > f(DP2) > f(equivalent M-C) > f(DP3). The calculated results from a case study showed that the equivalent M-C yield criterion should be the best at evaluating soil slope stability before rainfall; the DP2 yield criterion should be selected to calculate the soil slope stability at the effective angle of friction less than 16.5° under sustained rainfall. The yield criterion should be selected or adjusted reasonably to calculate the safety factor of unsaturated soil slopes before and during sustained rainfall.展开更多
基金supported by the Open Research Fund Program of State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering(No.sk lhse-2022-D-03)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.U2006213,42277139)the Taishan Scholars Program(No.tsqn202306297).
文摘The microscopic characterization of isolated bubbles in gassy soil plays an important role in the macroscopic physical properties of sediments and is a key factor in the study of geological hazards in gas-bearing strata.Based on the box-counting method and the pore fractal features in porous media,a fractal model of bubble microstructure parameters in gassy soil under different gas con-tents and vertical load conditions is established by using an industrial X-ray CT scanning system.The results show that the fractal di-mension of bubbles in the sample is correlated with the volume fraction of bubbles,and it is also restricted by the vertical load.The three-dimensional fractal dimension of the sample is about 1 larger than the average two-dimensional fractal dimension of all the slices from the same sample.The uniform porous media fractal model is used to test the equivalent diameter,and the results show that the variation of the measured pore diameter ratio is jointly restricted by the volume fraction and the vertical load.In addition,the measured self-similarity interval of the bubble area distribution is tested by the porous media fractal capillary bundle model,and the fitting curve of measured pore area ratio in a small loading range is obtained in this paper.
基金supported by the Special Funds for Guiding Local Scientific and Technological Development by The Central Government(22ZY1QA005)the Science and Technology Program of Gansu Province"Outstanding Doctoral Students Project"(22JR5RA325)+3 种基金"Innovation Star"Funding Project for Outstanding Graduate Students of Gansu Province(2022CXZX-528)the Science and Technology Project of Gansu Province(21YF5GA050)Education Department of Gansu Province Industrial Support Plan Project(2021CYZC-28)Transport Department of Gansu Province Science and Technology R&D Projects(No.2021-12).
文摘Salinization and desertification are closely related to water-salt migration caused by a temperature gradient.Based on the Darcy Law of unsaturated soils,the law of energy conservation and the law of mass conservation,the thermal-water-salt coupling mathematical model of unsaturated frozen saline soil was established.The model considered the latent heat of phase change,crystallization impedance,crystallization consumption and complete precipitation of solute crystallization in ice.In order to verify the rationality of the model,the unidirectional freezing test of unsaturated saline soil was carried out in an open system with no-pressure water supplement to obtain the spatial distribution of temperature,moisture and salt in the saline soil.Finally,numerical simulations are implemented with the assistance of COMSOL Multiphysics.Validation of the model is illustrated by comparisons between the simulation and experimental data.The results demonstrated that the temperature within saline soil changes with time and can be divided into three stages,namely quick freezing stage,transitional stage and stable stage.The water and salt contents in the freezing zone are layered,with peak values at the freezing front.The coupled model could reveal the heat-mass migration mechanism of unsaturated frozen saline soil and dynamically describe the freezing depth and the movement law of the freezing front,ice and salt crystal formation mechanism,and the change law of thermal conductivity and permeability coefficient.
基金financially supported by Sichuan Huaxi Group Co.,ltd.(No.HXKX2019/015,No.HXKX2019/019,No.HXKX2018/030)the Open Fund of Sichuan Provincial Engineering Research Center of City Solid Waste Energy and Building Materials Conversion and Utilization Technology(No.GF2022ZC009)the Open Fund of Sichuan Engineering Research Center for Mechanical Properties and Engineering Technology of Unsaturated Soils(No.SC-FBHT2022-04)。
文摘Unsaturated expansive soil is widely distributed in China and has complex engineering properties.This paper proposes the unified hydraulic effect shear strength theory of unsaturated expansive soil based on the effective stress principle,swelling force principle,and soil–water characteristics.Considering the viscoelasticity and structural damage of unsaturated expansive soil during loading,a fractional hardening–damage model of unsaturated expansive soil was established.The model parameters were established on the basis of the proposed calculation method of shear strength and the triaxial shear experiment on unsaturated expansive soil.The proposed model was verified by the experimental data and a traditional damage model.The proposed model can satisfactorily describe the entire process of the strain-hardening law of unsaturated expansive soil.Finally,by investigating the damage variables of the proposed model,it was found that:(a)when the values of confining pressure and matric suction are close,the coupling of confining pressure and matric suction contributes more to the shear strength;(b)there is a damage threshold for unsaturated expansive soil,and is mainly reflected by strength criterion of infinitesimal body;(c)the strain hardening law of unsaturated expansive soil is mainly reflected by fractional derivative operator.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12172211 and 41630633)the National Key Research and Development Project of China(Grant No.2019YFC1509800).
文摘In practical engineering,the total vertical stress in the soil layer is not constant due to stress diffusion,and varies with time and depth.Therefore,the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of stress diffusion on the two-dimensional(2D)plane strain consolidation properties of unsaturated soils when the stress varies with time and depth.A series of semi-analytical solutions in terms of excess pore air and water pressures and settlement for 2D plane strain consolidation of unsaturated soils can be derived with the joint use of Laplace transform and Fourier sine series expansion.Then,the inverse Laplace transform of the semi-analytical solution is given in the time domain using a self-programmed code based on Crump’s method.The reliability of the obtained solutions is proved by the degeneration.Finally,the 2D plots of excess pore pressures and the curves of settlement varying with time,considering different physical parameters of unsaturated soil stratum and depth-dependent stress,are depicted and analyzed to study the 2D plane strain consolidation properties of unsaturated soils subjected to the depthdependent stress.
文摘A comparison between deep learning and standalone models in predicting the compaction parameters of soil is presented in this research.One hundred and ninety and fifty-three soil samples were randomly picked up from two hundred and forty-three soil samples to create training and validation datasets,respectively.The performance and accuracy of the models were measured by root mean square error(RMSE),coefficient of determination(R2),Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient(r),mean absolute error(MAE),variance accounted for(VAF),mean absolute percentage error(MAPE),weighted mean absolute percentage error(WMAPE),a20-index,index of scatter(IOS),and index of agreement(IOA).Comparisons between standalone models demonstrate that the model MD 29 in Gaussian process regression(GPR)and model MD 101 in support vector machine(SVM)can achieve over 96%of accuracy in predicting the optimum moisture content(OMC)and maximum dry density(MDD)of soil,and outperformed other standalone models.The comparison between deep learning models shows that the models MD 46 and MD 146 in long short-term memory(LSTM)predict OMC and MDD with higher accuracy than ANN models.However,the LSTM models outperformed the GPR models in predicting the compaction parameters.The sensitivity analysis illustrates that fine content(FC),specific gravity(SG),and liquid limit(LL)highly influence the prediction of compaction parameters.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grants No.51579170 and 51179118)the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.51321065)
文摘Generally, most soil slope failures are induced by rainfall infiltration, a process that involves interactions between the liquid phase, gas phase,and solid skeleton in an unsaturated soil slope. In this study, a loosely coupled liquid-gas-solid three-phase model, linking two numerical codes,TOUGH2/EOS3, which is used for water-air two-phase flow analysis, and FLAC^(3D), which is used for mechanical analysis, was established. The model was validated through a documented water drainage experiment over a sandy column and a comparison of the results with measured data and simulated results from other researchers. The proposed model was used to investigate the features of water-air two-phase flow and stress fields in an unsaturated soil slope during rainfall infiltration. The slope stability analysis was then performed based on the simulated water-air two-phase seepage and stress fields on a given slip surface. The results show that the safety factor for the given slip surface decreases first, then increases, and later decreases until the rainfall stops. Subsequently, a sudden rise occurs. After that, the safety factor decreases continually and reaches its lowest value, and then increases slowly to a steady value. The lowest value does not occur when the rainfall stops, indicating a delayed effect of the safety factor. The variations of the safety factor for the given slip surface are therefore caused by a combination of pore-air pressure, matric suction, normal stress, and net normal stress.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.11072255)the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province(No.2011GXNSFE018004)
文摘A constitutive model of unsaturated soils with coupling capillary hysteresis and skeleton deformation is developed and implemented in a fully coupled transient hydro-mechanical finite-element model(computer code U-DYSAC2).The obtained results are compared with experimental results,showing that the proposed constitutive model can simulate the main mechanical and hydraulic behavior of unsaturated soils in a unified framework.The non-linearity of the soil-water characteristic relation is treated in a similar way of elastoplasticity.Two constitutive relations are integrated by an implicit return-mapping scheme similar to that developed for saturated soils.A consistent tangential modulus is derived to preserve the asymptotic rate of the quadratic convergence of Newton's iteration.Combined with the integration of the constitutive model,a complete finite-element formulation of coupling hydro-mechanical problems for unsaturated soils is presented.A number of practical problems with different given initial and boundary conditions are analyzed to illustrate the performance and capabilities of the finite-element model.
文摘The non-linear constitutive model suggested by the authors and the Alonso' s elasto-plasticity model of unsaturated soil modified by the authors are introduced into the consolidation theory of ursaturated soil proposed by CHEN Zheng-han, and the non-linear and the elasto-plasticity consolidation models of unsaturated soil are obtained. Programs related to the two consolidation models are designed, and a 2-D consolidation problem of unsaturated soil is solved using the programs , the consolidation process and the development of plastic zone under multi-grade load are studied. The above research develops the consolidation theory of unsaturated soil to a new level.
基金Project(1301015A)supported by the Post-doctoral Research Fund of Jiangsu Province,ChinaProject Funded by the Priority Academic Program of Jiangsu Higher Education Institution,China+1 种基金Project(2014M561566)supported by China Postdoctoral Science FoundationProject(YK913007)supported by Key Laboratory of Earth-Rock Dam Failure Mechanism and Safety Control Technologies,China
文摘Two modifications for the basic Barcelona model(BBM) are present. One is the replacement of the net stress by the average skeleton stress in unsaturated soil modeling, and the other is the adoption of an expression for the load-collapse(LC) yield surface that can match flexibly the normal compression lines at different suctions. The predictions of the modified BBM for the controlled-suction triaxial test on the unsaturated compacted clay are presented and compared with the experimental results. A good agreement between the predicted and experimental results demonstrates the reasonability of the modified BBM. On this basis, the coupled processes of groundwater flow and soil deformation in a homogeneous soil slope under a long heavy rainfall are simulated with the proposed elasto-plastic model. The numerical results reveal that the failure of a slope under rainfall infiltration is due to both the reduction of soil suction and the significant rise in groundwater table. The evolution of the displacements is greatly related to the change of suction. The maximum collapse deformation happens near the surface of slope where infiltrated rainwater can quickly reach. The results may provide a helpful reference for hazard assessment and control of rainfall-induced landslides.
文摘Unsaturated soil is a three-phase media and is composed of soil grain,water andgas.In this paper,the consolidation problem of unsaturated soil is investigated basedon the theory of mixture.A theoretical formula of effective stress on anisotropicporous media and unsaturated soil is derived.The principle of effective stress and theprinciple of Curie symmetry are taken as two fundamental constitutive principles ofunsaturated soil.A mathematical model of consolidation of unsaturated soil isproposed,which consists of25 partial differenfial equations with25 unknowns.Withthe help of increament linearizing method,the model is reduced to5 governingequations with5 unknowns,i.e.,the three displacement components of solid phase,thepore water pressure and the pore gas pressure.7 material parameters are involved inthe model and all of them can be measured using soil tests.It is convenient to use themodel to engineering practice.The well known Biot’s theory is a special case of themodel.
基金supported by National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CB047001)National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51508578)
文摘Canopy effect refers to the phenomenon in which moisture accumulates underneath an impervious cover.A canopy effect can lead to full saturation of the soil underneath the impervious cover.A recent theoretical study separates the canopy effect into two types.The first one is caused by evaporation-condensation in unsaturated soils,while the second one is induced by freezing-enhanced vapour transfer in unsaturated soils.To validate experimentally these two types of canopy effect and to reveal their mechanisms,moisture-migration experiments were carried out,using a newly developed laboratory apparatus for unsaturated frozen soils.Six conditions were applied to the calcareous sand,with different initial water contents and boundary temperatures.The results show that water content in the upper portion of the sample increased under an upward temperature gradient,and the increment of water content was greater if the soil was subjected to freezing.For the freezing cases,the depth of the peak water content was in line with the freezing front.And the greater the initial water content,the more the water content accumulated at the freezing front.However,a lower cooling rate seemed to facilitate vapour migration.For the unfrozen cases,the water content in the upper portion of the sample also increased;and the increases became more apparent with a higher initial moisture content.The temperature gradient can also inhibit the vapour migration.A less steep temperature gradient always resulted in a more notable inhibition effect.Test results seem to verify the theory of the canopy effect.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(41771304)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2017YFC0505404)。
文摘The breakdown of soil aggregates under rainfall and their abrasion in overland flow are important processes in water erosion due to the production of more fine and transportable particles and,the subsequent significant effect on the erosion intensity.Currently,little is known about the effects of sediment load on the soil aggregate abrasion and the relationship of this abrasion with some related hydraulic parameters.Here,the potential effects of sediment load on soil aggregate abrasion and hydraulic parameters in overland flow were investigated through a series of experiments in a 3.8-m-long hydraulic flume at the slope gradients of 8.7 and 26.8%,unit flow discharges from 2×10^-3 to 6×10^-3 m^2 s^-1,and the sediment concentration from 0 to 110 kg m-3.All the aggregates from Ultisols developed Quaternary red clay,Central China.The results indicated that discharge had the most significant(P<0.01)effect on the aggregates abrasion with the contributions of 58.76 and 60.34%,followed by sediment feed rate,with contributions of 39.66 and 34.12%at the slope gradients of 8.7 and 26.8%,respectively.The abrasion degree of aggregates was found to increase as a power function of the sediment concentration.Meanwhile,the flow depth,friction factor,and shear stress increased as a power function along with the increase of sediment concentration at different slope gradients and discharges.Reynolds number was obviously affected by sediment concentration and it decreased as sediment concentration increased.The ratio of the residual weight to the initial weight of soil aggregates(Wr/Wi)was found to increase as the linear function with an increasing flow depth(P=0.008)or Reynolds number(P=0.002)in the sediment-laden flow.The Wr/Wi values followed a power function decrease with increasing friction factor or shear stress in the sediment-laden flow,indicating that friction factor is the best hydraulic parameter for prediction of soil aggregate abrasion under different sediment load conditions.The information regarding the soil aggregate abrasion under various sediment load conditions can facilitate soil process-based erosion modeling.
文摘The non_linear constitutive model suggested by the authors and the Alonso’s elasto_plasticity model of unsaturated soil modified by the authors are introduced into the consolidation theory of unsaturated soil proposed by CHEN Zheng_han, and the non_linear and the elasto_plasticity consolidation models of unsaturated soil are obtained. Programs related to the two consolidation models are designed, and a 2_D consolidation problem of unsaturated soil is solved using the programs, the consolidation process and the development of plastic zone under multi_grade load are studied. The above research develops the consolidation theory of unsaturated soil to a new level.
基金Funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51468039, 51868044)。
文摘In order to investigate the corrosion mechanism of recycled reinforced concrete (RRC) under harsh environments,four recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) contents were selected,and saline soil was used as an electrolyte to perform electrified accelerated corrosion experiments.The relative dynamic elastic modulus and relative corrosion current density were considered to describe the deterioration law of the RRC in saline soil.The results indicated that as the energization time increased,the corrosion current density,corrosion potential,and polarization resistance of the steel bar decreased gradually.Compared with ordinary reinforced concrete,when the RCA content was 30%,the ability of the RRC to resist corrosion was improved slightly;however,when the RCA content exceeded 30%,the corrosion resistance of the RRC deteriorated rapidly.Scanning electron microscopy revealed that for a dense RRC,less corrosion products were generated in the pores inside the concrete and on the surface of the steel bar.X-ray diffraction results indicated that SO_(4)^(2-) can generate ettringite and other corrosion products,along with volume expansion.The main corrosion products generated on the surface of the steel bars included Fe_(2)O_(3),Fe_(3)O_(4) and FeO(OH),which were the corrosion products generated by steel bars under natural environments.Therefore,using saline soil as an electrolyte is more consistent with the actual service environments of RRC.Both the relative dynamic mode and relative corrosion current density of the degradation parameters conform to the Weibull distribution;furthermore,the relative dynamic mode is more sensitive and the corresponding reliability curve can better describe the degradation law of RRC under saline soil environments.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 10672182 and 11072265)the Natural Science Foundation Project of Chongqing Science and Technology Commission (No. 2009BB7343)
文摘This paper analyzes a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of unsaturated soils based on the theory of mixtures.Unsaturated soil is considered as a mixture composed of soil skeleton,liquid water,vapor,dry air,and dissolved air.In addition to the mass and momentum conservation equations of each component and the energy conservation equation of the mixture,the system is closed using other 37 constitutive (or restriction) equations.As the change in water chemical potential is identical to the change in vapor chemical potential,a thermodynamic restriction relationship for the phase transition between pore water and pore vapor is formulated,in which the impact of the change in gas pressure on the phase transition is taken into account.Six final governing equations are given in incremental form in terms of six primary variables,i.e.,three displacement components of soil skeleton,water pressure,gas pressure,and temperature.The processes involved in the coupled model include thermal expansions of soil skeleton and soil particle,Soret effect,phase transition between water and vapor,air dissolution in pore water,and deformation of soil skeleton.
基金funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2017YFA0605002,2017YFA0605004,and 2016YFA0601501)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(41961124007,51779145,and 41830863)“Six top talents”in Jiangsu Province(RJFW-031)。
文摘Model parameters estimation is a pivotal issue for runoff modeling in ungauged catchments.The nonlinear relationship between model parameters and catchment descriptors is a major obstacle for parameter regionalization,which is the most widely used approach.Runoff modeling was studied in 38 catchments located in the Yellow–Huai–Hai River Basin(YHHRB).The values of the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient(NSE),coefficient of determination(R2),and percent bias(PBIAS)indicated the acceptable performance of the soil and water assessment tool(SWAT)model in the YHHRB.Nine descriptors belonging to the categories of climate,soil,vegetation,and topography were used to express the catchment characteristics related to the hydrological processes.The quantitative relationships between the parameters of the SWAT model and the catchment descriptors were analyzed by six regression-based models,including linear regression(LR)equations,support vector regression(SVR),random forest(RF),k-nearest neighbor(kNN),decision tree(DT),and radial basis function(RBF).Each of the 38 catchments was assumed to be an ungauged catchment in turn.Then,the parameters in each target catchment were estimated by the constructed regression models based on the remaining 37 donor catchments.Furthermore,the similaritybased regionalization scheme was used for comparison with the regression-based approach.The results indicated that the runoff with the highest accuracy was modeled by the SVR-based scheme in ungauged catchments.Compared with the traditional LR-based approach,the accuracy of the runoff modeling in ungauged catchments was improved by the machine learning algorithms because of the outstanding capability to deal with nonlinear relationships.The performances of different approaches were similar in humid regions,while the advantages of the machine learning techniques were more evident in arid regions.When the study area contained nested catchments,the best result was calculated with the similarity-based parameter regionalization scheme because of the high catchment density and short spatial distance.The new findings could improve flood forecasting and water resources planning in regions that lack observed data.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (40801001,40671010,40701054)National Key Technologies R&D Program of China during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period (2007BAD46B01)
文摘Spatial variation in soil surface CO2 efflux was measured in a stand of Populus euphratica in the Ejina Oasis of desert riparian forest in the extreme arid region in northwestern China from April 2007 through October 2007.Measurements were taken with a gas-exchange analyzer linked to a soil-respiration chamber.The mean soil CO2 efflux in the stand was 2.71 μmol/(m2·s) during the growing season and 1.38 μmol/(m2·s) in the nongrowing season.The seasonal maximum (end of May through early June) andminimum (October) CO2 efflux were 3.38 and 0.69 μmol/(m2·s),respectively.The diurnal fluctuation of CO2 efflux was relatively small (< 20 percent),with theminimum appearing around 05:00 and the maximum around 15:00.Linear regression analysis showed soil-surface CO2 efflux to be most highly correlated with soil temperature (R2=0.435) and soil moisture (R2=0.213).When all variables were considered simultaneously,only soil temperature (R2=0.378),soil moisture (R2=0.147),and root volume density (R2=0.021) explained a significant amount of variance in soil surface CO2 efflux.Stand volumes were not correlated with soil CO2 efflux on our sites.
基金supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41701327,31870708,51879155,515 79157 and 5177915 6)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2016YFC0500504)the Inner Mongolia Natural Science Foundation (2017BS0405)
文摘The characteristics of soil holding capacity for different shrub-grass patterns are important to research the mechanisms regulating vegetation on slopes.The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics and mecha-nisms of soil erosion and hydraulic parameters under differ-ent vegetation patterns in the Pisha sandstone area of Inner Mongolia on lands of 8°slope gradient.We carried out field scouring experiments on five different shrub-grass patterns as treatments,viz no shrubs(GL),shrubs on the upper part of the slope(SU),middle part of the slope(SM)and lower part of the slope(SL).We designated bare slope(BL)as the control.We employed three different water flow rates(15,20,30 L·min^(−1)).Our results showed that the contribution of plant root systems to slope sediment reduction ranged from 64 to 84%.The root systems proved to be the main contributing factor to reduction of erosion by vegetation.The relationship between soil detachment rate,stream flow power,and flow unit stream power under different scouring discharge rates showed that soil detachment declined in rank order as:BL>GL>SU>SM>SL.The SL pat-tern had the lowest soil detachment rate(0.098 g·m^(−2)·s^(−1)),flow stream power(2.371 W·m^(−2)),flow unit stream power(0.165 m·s^(−1))and flow shear stress(16.986 Pa),and proved to be the best erosion combating pattern.The results of decision coefficient and path analysis showed that stream power was the most important hydraulic parameter for describing soil detachment rate.The combination of stream power and shear stress,namely Dr=0.1ω−0.03τ−0.56(R^(2)=0.924),most accurately simulated the soil detachment characteristics on slopes.Our study suggests that the risk of soil ero-sion can be reduced by planting shrub-grass mixes on these slopes.Under the conditions of limited water resources and economy,the benefit of sediment reduction can be maxi-mized by planting shrubbery on the lower parts of slopes.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50879044)Master's Degree Thesis Excellent Training Funds of Three Gorges University(2011PY008)
文摘The mechanical behavior of sliding zone soils plays a significant role in landslide. In general, the sliding zone soils are basically in unsaturated state due to rainfall infiltration and reservoir water level fluctuation. Meanwhile, a large number of examples show that the deformation processes of landslides always take a long period of time, indicating that landslides exhibit a time-dependent property. Therefore, the deformation of unsaturated soils of landslide involves creep behaviors. In this paper, the Burgers creep model for unsaturated soils under triaxial stress state is considered based on the unsaturated soil mechanics. Then, by curve fitting using the least squares method, creep parameters in different matric suction states are obtained based on the creep test data of unsaturated soils in the sliding zones of Qianjiangping landslide. Results show that the predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Finally, to further explore the creep characteristics of the unsaturated soils in sliding zones, the relationships between parameters of the model and matric suction are analyzed and a revised Burgers creep model is developed correspondingly. Simulations on another group of test data are performed by using the modified Burgers creep model and reasonable results are observed.
基金sponsored by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.LY13E080008)the Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.51108293)the Science and Technology Fund of Yunnan Provincial Communication Department of China(Grant No.2010(A)06-b)
文摘The yield criterion parameters of the soil material change with different values of the cohesion and the angle of friction because of sustained rainfall infiltration. Based on the Mohr-Coulomb(M-C) and Drucker-Prager(D-P) yield criteria, some reasonable yield criteria selections were discussed for quantitative analysis of unsaturated soil slope stability. Moreover, a critical point was found at the effective angle of friction equaling to 16.5° by transformation of parameters related to unsaturated soil under sustained rainfall. When the effective angle of friction more than 16.5° through parameter transformation of different yield criteria under natural condition, the calculation result of the safety factor was such that: f(DP1) > f(M-C) > f(equivalent M-C) > f(DP2) > f(DP3). While the effective angle of friction less than 16.5°, through parameter transformation, the safety factors were in the following order: f(DP1) > f(M-C) > f(DP2) > f(equivalent M-C) > f(DP3). The calculated results from a case study showed that the equivalent M-C yield criterion should be the best at evaluating soil slope stability before rainfall; the DP2 yield criterion should be selected to calculate the soil slope stability at the effective angle of friction less than 16.5° under sustained rainfall. The yield criterion should be selected or adjusted reasonably to calculate the safety factor of unsaturated soil slopes before and during sustained rainfall.
