Abstract The objective of this study was to estimate the elastic wave velocity of an unsaturated soil slope, and to verify its applicability. The elastic wave velocity in a silty sand was measured. The individual influence of the volumetric water content and the tilt angle on the normalized wave velocity through unsaturated soil were investigated through a series of varied slope model tests. The relationship function of the normalized wave velocity-volumetric water content-tilt angle was established. To verify the proposed estimation function, a series of fixed slope model tests was carried out. The relationship functions were used to estimate the behaviors of the wave velocity in rainfall-induced slope failure model tests. The applicability of the proposed relationship functions for the wave velocity behaviors was also presented. It was found that the estimation function is highly consistent with the measurements for the wave velocity behaviors through unsaturated soil slope in the presented test conditions. In addition, the effects of the rainfall duration/initial water content, density, slope angle and surface layer thickness on the decrease rate of the normalized wave velocity with the volumetric water content and the tilt angle within the test conditions in this study were seen to be small.

中文翻译：

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作为含水量和剪切变形的函数，通过非饱和土坡估计弹性波速度

摘要 本研究旨在估算非饱和土边坡的弹性波速，并验证其适用性。测量粉质砂中的弹性波速度。通过一系列不同的坡度模型试验，研究了体积含水量和倾斜角对通过非饱和土的归一化波速的个体影响。建立了归一化波速-体积含水量-倾角的关系函数。为了验证所提出的估计函数，进行了一系列固定斜率模型试验。关系函数用于估计降雨引起的边坡破坏模型试验中的波速行为。还介绍了所提出的关系函数对波速行为的适用性。发现估计函数与在所提出的测试条件下通过非饱和土坡的波速行为的测量高度一致。此外，在本研究的试验条件下，还观察到降雨历时/初始含水量、密度、坡度角和表层厚度对归一化波速随体积含水量和倾斜角的下降率的影响。要小。