Highly mineralized and acid/alkaline groundwater is critical to the short- or long-term stability of fractured rock masses in geological engineering. Understanding the impact of water-rock interactions on mechanical properties of fractured rock masses is important but challenging. This study investigated the physicochemical interactions between chemical solutions and granite fractures which can directly

Wellbore instability is a major safety and environmental concern in both onshore and offshore drilling. Geological drilling risk assessment for wellbore collapse is critical for the optimization of well plans, and to reduce potential costs before drilling. In this work, we propose a physics-guided deep learning approach to predict wellbore instability using seismic attributes data. We first trained

Landslide hazards often occur in succession with multiple hazardous processes. The elements at risk such as buildings are therefore exposed to a multi-hazard environment. Multi-vulnerability assessment is a critical component of multi-hazard risk analysis. In this paper, effect of hazard interactions on the physics of building damage is formulated from the perspective of triggering and temporal relations

This work presents a numerical method for the simulation of landslides generated impulse waves and its application to the historical Vajont case study. The computational tool is based on the Particle Finite Element Method (PFEM), a Lagrangian strategy that combines the finite element solution of the governing equations with an efficient remeshing strategy to deal with large deformation problems. After

The 2016–2017 seismic sequence in the Central Apennines (Italy) demonstrated, once again, the relevant role of the differentiated seismic effects related to different features in complex geological contexts at a short distance (i.e. soft sediment-filled valley, hilly relieves, complex buried geometries). The heavy damages of old settlements located on the top of a rocky hill, such as Arquata del Tronto

More than 5000 landslides have been identified in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) area since the impoundment in 2003, which posed great threats to the residential houses, transportation on the Yangtze, and dam stability. This paper focuses on the evaluation of the coupled influence of rainfall and reservoir water on deformation characteristics and failure evolution of the Outang landslide (in China)

We present a novel field experimental setup that can be used for studying the characteristics of landslide seismicity. The setup consists of a concrete, filled with soil, cylinder that moves along a surficial soil corridor. The emitted seismic signals are due to soil friction. The cylinder acts as an upscaled sheer-box allowing control over a number of parameters: the magnitude of normal stress on

The simulation study of the effect of clay swelling on fracture generation and porosity change in shale rocks is of great significance for applying hydraulic fracturing in the development of shale reservoirs in the petroleum industry. However, previous simulations did not consider the heterogeneous characteristics of shales. Besides, it is not clear how the swelling stresses are distributed owing to

Bentonite pellet-powder mixtures are candidate materials for sealing the galleries in deep geological repositories for radioactive waste. In the present work, swelling pressure tests are performed on pellet-powder mixtures with different powder contents. Results highlight the influence of the initial granular structure on the mechanical behaviour of pellet-powder mixtures. In mixtures with a low density

Previous studies have evaluated the water-weakening effect of rock materials after immersion in water during different periods of time. However, the water transference between the environment and the building stones frequently occurs in vapour form when changes in the relative humidity of the air involve little variations in moisture content of stones. In this sense, the novelty of this work lies in

The present study focuses on the compositional analysis and phase relationship of soil mass and their role to trigger landslides in the Babai River watershed, Siwalik zone of Nepal. A total of 76 landslides are selected for sampling and further analysis among 769 active landslides from the total study area. For the classification of soil, the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) is adopted by

The city of Morelia has been affected by Structurally-Controlled Differential Subsidence (SCDS) since at least 1983, modifying civil structures and infrastructure through the appearance of ground failures and differential ground subsidence. The resulting damage to streets, homes, hydraulic lines, and government facilities has caused economic losses of millions of dollars. An increase in population

The coarse granular materials in the pavement base and subbase layers are generally in the stress state of three dimensional anisotropy, while most previous experimental researches regarding the base and subbase materials focused on the isotropic or axisymmetric K0 stress conditions. In this study, the resilient characteristics of unbound granular materials in initial three dimensional anisotropic

Pre-compacted blocks of MX80 bentonite/Callovo-Oxfordian (COx) claystone mixture are chosen as sealing/backfilling materials in the French concept of deep geological disposal for radioactive waste. Creating technological voids is normally unavoidable during installation in the disposal galleries, in the form of axial voids between compacted blocks and radial voids between the compacted blocks and the

In ocean environments, wave usually propagates in association with a current. The paper presents a cyclic characterization framework for elastoplastic consolidating behavior of liquefiable seabed around the immersed tunnel under combined wave and current loading, based on the Biot dynamic consolidation theory. Special attention is placed on modeling the nonlinear wave-current interaction, the cyclic

The morphometric characteristics of a basin have a significant effect on landslide occurrence and can provide valuable information related to rainfall-induced shallow landslides. Basin morphometric parameters (e.g. average slope, relief and Melton ratio) can be correlated to landslide triggering factors such as rainfall intensity and duration. In this study, the physically-based model TRIGRS was used

The European Standard EN ISO 17892-12:2018 describes the means of determining the liquid limit (LL) of soils using two independent test methods: the Casagrande percussion cup and fall cone test. The first method is characterized mainly by its universality and the second by its simplicity. However, these two methods are known to provide different results. The higher the LL, the greater is the difference

Prediction of multi-hazard slope stability events requires an informed and judicious choice of the possible scenarios. An incorrect definition of landslide conditions in terms of expected failure volume, material behavior, or boundary conditions can lead to inaccurate predictions and, in turn, to wrong engineering and risk management decisions. Reduced-scale experiments carried out two years before

This study investigates the influence of freeze-thaw (FT) cycles on the (i) microstructure, (ii) soil water characteristics, and (iii) sensitivity of the volumetric strain and mechanical properties to moisture content for a compacted clay. The mechanical properties herein include resilient modulus (MR), unconfined compression strength (qu), and reloading modulus (E1%) and stress (Su1%) at 1% strain

Rock bridges are commonly encountered in incipiently jointed rock masses, and the problem of their failure has a significant influence on the safety of involved engineering practices. Although many research have been conducted to look into the geometrical or mechanical properties of rock bridges before failure, the properties of them after failure have rarely been investigated. In this study, we carried

The strain evolution of saturated clays under cyclic loadings has been studied by means of various laboratory testing methods, aiming for the accurate simulation of engineering conditions such as the consolidation states of clays, cyclic stress paths of external loadings and boundary conditions in situ. Considering that the subgrade clays are usually overconsolidated rather than normally consolidated

Chaotic geological bodies composed of rock inclusions of different lithology and size enclosed in a weaker matrix are often referred to as bimrocks (block-in-matrix rocks). When dealing with these challenging and widespread geomaterials, a major concern for geopractitioners is the estimation of block content, which has been demonstrated to strongly affect the overall mechanical behaviour of bimrocks

Phyllite, which is a low-grade metamorphic rock with well-developed foliations, is encountered frequently during the construction of tunnels in western China. First, uniaxial compressive creep tests were performed to study the time-dependent behavior of phyllite specimens from Zhegu mountain tunnel. Then, a numerical approach was put forward based on the particle discrete element method to describe

It is well known that the volumetric block proportion (VBP), to a large extent, dominates the mechanical properties of the soil-rock mixture (S-RM). In this study, random convex polyhedrons were applied for simulating rock blocks. Random structural models of S-RMs were generated based on the statistical regularities of volumetric proportion, size, shape, and spatial distributions of rock blocks. Then

Soil hydraulic conductivity depends not only on the state variables such as void ratio and pore size distribution, but also on its physical/geotechnical properties. In this study, Atterberg limits, hydraulic conductivity and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) tests were performed on MX80 bentonite/Callovo-Oxfordian (COx) claystone mixtures. Based on the experimental results obtained in this study

Deep-seated landslides are often caused by severe rainfall, but the displaced potential landslide mass often does not slide downslope entirely in one time. Evaluation of the mobilized volume of the deep-seated landslide and the volume of the remaining potentially unstable landslide mass on the slope is vital for hazard mitigation. In this study, an integrated method was developed for evaluation of

Research on the reliable characterization of saturated permeability has received great yet necessary attention globally. However, most studies were carried out on soils with a volumetric tendency being almost insensitive to water saturation or at least with this hidden assumption. This is clearly not the case when dealing with the two broad categories of problematic soils, including collapsible and

Soil compaction involves a densification and a relative variation of physical and mechanical characteristics of soils. Evaluating laboratory compaction parameters such as maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum water content (OWC) is a very important task to control field compaction for all earth-works structures. In this note over 400 publications and newly laboratory tests have been reviewed to give

Freeze-thaw action has caused many engineering geology disasters in cold regions, such as frost cracking of tunnel and pavement, rockfall of rock slope, falling off of building materials. The freeze-thaw damage of porous rock is mainly induced by the frost heaving pressure due to pore water freezing. Although some elastic crystallization theories have been proposed to model the freezing process of

The mineralogy and texture of granite, which is a common host rock in geotechnical engineering practices such as tunneling, enhanced geothermal systems and nuclear waste disposal, significantly affect its microcracking behavior. However, the effects of these two attributes on the microcracking behavior of granite are not entirely understood. We study and compare the microcracking behavior of three

The shearing behaviour of organic soils, such as peat, under monotonic loading can be very different than those of inorganic soils due to the presence of fibers. A series of one-dimensional consolidation, direct simple shear, and bender element tests are conducted to investigate the compressibility and the monotonic shear strength of a peat deposit from the Port Lands area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Two successive Baige landslides are presented in this study to investigate the dynamics and emplacement mechanisms. Field survey shows that the deposit characteristics of the first landslide are affected by the extremely fractured rock masses and the complex spatial distribution of lithologies in the source area. This deposit consists of abundant angular megablocks on the surface supported by clasts

In this work, cyclic free swelling/shrinkage tests were conducted on uniaxial compacted GMZ bentonite specimens with consideration of influences of initial dry density and suction. For conducting the cyclic swelling/shrinkage test, vapour equilibrium technique was employed for suction control and a laser displacement sensor was adopted to measure the specimen dimension. Results reveal that influence

The idea behind any validation scheme in landslide susceptibility studies is to test whether a model calibrated on a certain data can predict an unknown dataset of the same nature (landslide presences/absences and covariates). Almost the entirety of landslide susceptibility studies are validated by subsetting a single dataset into a training and test sets. This dataset usually corresponds either to

Real-time monitoring and intelligent early warning system are crucial and significant to take mitigation measures and reduce casualties and property losses related to landslides. It is difficult to obtain entire monitoring data in the accelerated deformation phase in a landslide event, and hard to issue early warning information using a traditional monitoring approach with fixed and low sampling frequency

To investigate the influence of water on the mechanical behavior of rock surrounding hard-rock tunnels, a series of uniaxial and true-triaxial compression tests were performed on red sandstone samples with two different water contents (natural water content (NWC) and saturated water content (SWC)). The samples taken were cubic samples containing a circular hole and cylindrical samples. During the true-triaxial

There are an increasing number of mega engineering projects of removing the top of hills to fill in the valley for new land creation in the Loess Plateau of China, which significantly changes the hydrological and geological equilibrium state of the site. The formation of a new hydrological equilibrium state is associated with the water movement in the compacted and intact loess layers. Most disasters

Site characterization based on measurements is essential for geological and geotechnical engineering. However, measurements are usually limited and sparse because of many limitations, which can hardly be utilized to perform a well site characterization. Therefore, some data fusion methods are commonly utilized to integrate correlated data to improve the performance of site characterization. Among data

Anti-slide piles are widely used for stabilizing landslides and a large number of landslide-piles systems were constituted in reservoir areas. How these landslide-piles systems evolve under reservoir effects is vital for the safe operation of dams. In this study, two reservoir conditions, namely condition of static water level and water level fluctuations, were considered for detailly exploring the

The 15 February 2010 Maierato landslide has become the symbol of the hydrogeological instability of the Calabria region (Southern Italy). It occurred after a long period of rain in an area prone to landslides. Some videos filmed during the event documented the high velocity and the flow-like character of this landslide after the slope failure. Several studies focused on the pre-failure and failure

The assessment of landslide hazards and design of strategies for managing the related risk have been widely studied topics in the scientific community due to the settlements, infrastructures and tourist and cultural heritage sites that may be threatened by deformations involving unstable slopes. Engineering geological and geophysical techniques have been recently integrated in multidisciplinary approaches

The upper Minjiang catchment is frequently affected by a significant number of large to giant landslides. In one such massive older landslide, approximately 2 million m3 of sediment was reactivated, threatening the safety of a pylon on the landslide and the safety of the only route that allows high-speed travel from Wenchuan to Maoxian. To trace the deformation evolution history and analyze the current

High-level waste (HLW), one of the most poisonous materials known to science, includes spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Therefore, nuclear engineers seek to isolate HLW from the Earth's biosphere by using multibarrier systems, including engineered and natural barriers deep below the surface of the earth. Typically, disposal holes are drilled into intact rocks. Canisters and buffer materials are

Soil thermal properties are essential for investigating the thermal performance of many kinds of underground thermal engineering structure. To investigate the influences of microstructure alteration on soil thermal properties, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specific heat capacity were measured for both undisturbed and compacted lateritic clay specimens subjected to drying and wetting

Soil-rock mixtures (SRMs) are the main unfavorable geologic bodies in Southwest China. This paper presents a novel mesoscale computational modeling study of SRMs with concave aggregates. An efficient 3D mesoscale SRM generation method is proposed by combining the Gilbert–Johnson–Keerthi (GJK)-based collision detection technique, the border placement algorithm and the particle position selection method

Based on nanoindentation experiments and numerical simulations, an approach is developed to investigate the softening of weak interlayers, which might trigger landslides. The components of weak interlayers in natural slopes are mainly rock fragments and clay, which lead to the difficulty of preparing intact samples for traditional rock mechanical experiments. Additionally, most rock slopes are microsensitive

The anti-dip rock slopes are common geological features in Taiwan, and the failure of this type of rock slope is prone to be triggered by seismic loads. Thus, it is important to investigate its dynamic behavior for further mitigation and prevention. The response of an anti-dip slope to an earthquake was modeled in this study by conducting a series of shaking table tests to determine the stability and

A numerical model was developed to simulate heat extraction and flow behaviour of fractures under deep geological conditions by incorporating a real fracture morphology induced by supercritical carbon dioxide (ScCO2) injection. 3-D scanning technology was used to generate the geometry of the fracture in the model in order to provide a realistic reflection of the tortuous and rough fractures induced

This study proposed a hybrid method combining finite element method (FEM) and a wave function based on the Lamb series in conjunction with modified transfinite interpolation for use in examining surface accelerations on a semi-elliptical hill subjected to shear horizontal (SH) waves of various dimensionless frequencies (η) at various incident angles (θ). The case topography included a semi-elliptical

As increasing amounts of civil engineering work are carried out on mudstone-derived residual soils, it has become important to systematically assess their geological engineering properties. Thus, the properties of mudstone-derived residual soils were evaluated in this study via a series of comprehensive laboratory tests to assess physical, mechanical, mineralogical, and microstructural variations.

This study presents new developments for the performance-based assessment of seismically-induced slope displacements (D). Performance-based procedures enable a hazard-consistent and rational seismic design of slope systems; hence, their use in practice is appealing. However, they are not the standard in engineering practice because their use is considered too complex to be used for non-critical projects

Slopes should be regarded as stochastic dynamic systems when investigating the uncertainty of ground motions. In engineering, this involves the propagation and spatial evolution of physical quantities (e.g., acceleration) that can be assessed with some probability. More specifically, stochastic stability and amplification effects are important issues under random seismic inputs. In studying the above

Equivalent continuum models estimating the deformability of complexly fractured rock masses may incur significant discrepancies. This paper proposes an equivalent discrete fracture network (E-DFN) method to proficiently capture the non-continuous characteristics of rock masses while significantly reducing computational cost compared with traditional discrete fracture network (DFN) models. A significance

Since the 1980s, ground fissures in the Taiyuan Basin have experienced blowouts, resulting in a significant but hidden danger to cities in the Basin. This paper describes the plane and damage characteristics of the ground fissures based on the findings of field investigations and mapping. Most ground fissures in the Basin were determined as linear with pinch-out reappearances on the surface. They were

Cultural heritage is the foundation upon which global and historical values are based on. It connects us to the legacy left by our ancestors and identifies who we are as part of the modern society. Globally and specifically in the northeastern Romania, the landscape where cultural heritage sites were built on is constantly evolving due to mass wasting processes. Among these processes, landslide and

Peat deposits are widely encountered in many parts of the world and present various challenges for the geotechnical engineering community because of their low bearing capacity and very high compressibility and creep potential. This paper describes extensive index and oedometer testing to investigate the compressibility behaviour/properties of deep, strongly to completely humified peat and highly organic

The shear mechanical behaviour of slip zone soil is of great significance for the stability analysis of landslides. Based on the shear deformation-failure characteristics of slip zone soil and the statistical damage theory, a shear constitutive model is proposed to describe the shear stress - displacement relation of slip zone soil. Parameters in the proposed model have clear physical-mechanical meaning

Large earth slides and rocks lides evolving into earth flows are quite widespread in the Northern Italian Apennines. Despite being simply referred to as landslides, many of them are, in fact, large complexes of landslides. They evolved through multiple and/or successive movements, undergoing partial and/or total reactivations. The reactivation of pre-existing landslide bodies is the prevalent mechanism

Dredged sludge has poor mechanical properties and its safe disposal is highly risky. Fiber has been considered as an effective additive for soil reinforcement because of its cost effectiveness, easy adaptability, and reproducibility. The main objective of this research is to investigate the effects of polypropylene fiber on hydro-mechanical behavior of dredged sludge. A series of compression and direct