This article presents a summary of the research on the novel tortuous surface method to stochastically analyze the stability of two-dimensional bimslopes, which are slopes composed of bimrocks or bimsoils. Tortuous failure surfaces (TFSs) are slip surfaces that develop around blocks when bimslopes fail. The method was automated through an algorithm that locates a slip surface passing around the blocks

Volcanic tuff is widely used in Anatolian architecture and represents building stones of cultural heritage. The present study included a relevant assessment of the effect of four salt types and their four different concentrations on the durability of the Döğer tuff used as building stones of cultural heritages, which is subjected to salt crystallization tests. For this purpose, an investigation was

The creep model is the main form used to describe the creep behavior of weakly cemented soft rock (WCSR). To investigate the creep behavior of weakly cemented soft rock, multi-stage loading creep tests were performed by using GDS HPTAS creep triaxial apparatus. The creep curves, creep rates, and creep failure modes of weakly cemented soft rock under different water contents were obtained. A novel four-element

Cracked rocks are quite susceptible to dynamic loading from drilling, blasting, and impacting events. Understanding the dynamic response of cracked rocks under dynamic loadings is crucial for the assessment of rock structure stability. In this study, dynamic compression tests were carried out on rock specimens with multiple parallel cracks using a split Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus. Effects of

Barak River is highly meandering rivers flowing through the alluvial plains of Assam in India. However, due to dynamic system, it is found that channel being subjected to regular shifting which creates uncertainty to the habitants residing nearby the river. Therefore, it is anticipated to carry out a study regarding changes in channel morphology and prediction of centerline channel migration during

This work focuses on integrated stability assessment of rocky tunnel slopes along a planned railway, namely, the Dujiangyan City to Siguniang Mountain Railway (DS Railway), which is an important transportation corridor in Southwest China. Investigating the stability of slopes at the entrances and exits of tunnels represents the first step of railway construction. Based on detailed geological engineering

Mechanical behavior and deformation characteristics of rock under unloading conditions are of particular significance for analyzing excavation-induced instability problems of underground rock masses. In this paper, triaxial compression tests with progressive unloading of confining pressure were conducted upon sandstone specimens under different combinations of initial confining pressures and pore pressures

Youd’s method is a widely adopted standard penetration test based approach for evaluation of liquefaction potential. This method was established by pooling the post-earthquake survey data collected from different regions of the world, and its accuracy may vary when applied in different regions. This paper investigates the inter-region variability associated with the accuracy of Youd’s method using

Because of its poor engineering properties, silt often needs to be treated to meet the design requirements. Solidification using binder is one of the most common methods to improve the engineering properties of silt. Lime or/and cement are often used to treat silt. However, the mechanical properties of soil are closely related to its microstructure. Although much research has been done on the mechanical

Mass movements are among the most dangerous natural hazards in mountainous regions. The present study employs machine learning (ML) models for mass movement susceptibility mapping (MMSM) in Iran based on a comprehensive dataset of 864 mass movements which include debris flow, landslide, and rockfall during the last 42 years (1977–2019) as well as 12 conditional factors. The results of validation stage

Erosion is a natural relief modeling process that is influenced by several factors. Among these, we highlight the soil properties, designated by the specific concept of erodibility. Most of the existing methods for quantifying erodibility are based on field plots or indirect procedures developed from farmland approaches and methodologies limited to other study conditions such as slopes, where soil

Land subsidence along significant linear engineering is mainly affected by long-term over-extraction of groundwater, mining of mineral resources, and karst collapse. In this paper, combined with the engineering geological and hydrogeological conditions, a three-dimensional fluid-solid model of land subsidence is established based on groundwater seepage and Biot’s consolidation theories, in order to

Salt crystallization-induced decay of Vardavard granodiorite and Shirkouh monzogranite, two Iranian building stones, were assessed with two non-destructive methods: saturation-buoyancy technique and P- and S-wave velocity measurement. Moreover, polarized and fluorescence microscopy studies were used to evaluate the behavior of the studied stones at microscopic scale against a salt crystallization aging

Dhanbad, also known as ‘Coal Capital of India’, is an important district in the state of Jharkhand, India. In this paper, hazard maps for the city are prepared at bedrock level following probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). In the absence of region-specific prediction model, the concept of logic tree comprising of four different ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) is employed to consider

Red-bed mudstone is widely distributed throughout the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China. This geological material easily disintegrates into fragments during engineering activities. The potential factors that influence the disintegration (grain composition, slake durability index, grain roundness, fractal dimension, and surface energy) and shear strength (cohesion and friction angle) of red-bed mudstone

Transport and acoustic measurements have been conducted on fifteen rock samples collected from central Lebanon to characterize the rock properties and to assess the impact of lithology, pore types, pore sizes, and textural parameters on the storage capacity and elastic characteristics. The spontaneous imbibition of selected samples was examined by detecting the moving capillary front across a sample

Intrusive granite dykes and their weathered layers can have great effects on seepage into slopes and on their stability. However, few studies of this topic have been reported. Using the Zhonglincun landslide as an example, we investigate the impact of a dyke and its weathered layer on the formation mechanism of a rainfall-induced residual soil slope failure. The sliding mass of Zhonglincun landslide

Regional geological mapping commonly records the dip and dip direction of dominant layering such as bedding and foliation but not the orientation of joints. It is common for joints to form an orthogonal pattern relative to the dominant layering. In that case, the three-dimensional possibilities can be extrapolated allowing inferences to be made about kinematically feasible structural failure mechanisms

In this paper, the permeability and porosity of self-prepared artificial columnar jointed rock masses (CJRM) with different columnar dip angles under different pore pressures during cyclic loading-unloading of confining pressure were measured. The experimental results indicate that the gas permeability of the artificial CJRM gradually decreases with the rise of pore pressure due to the existence of

In a strong earthquake, not only a large number of coseismic landslides are triggered, but relaxation and cracks in the rocks and soils are induced, which make these rocks and soils vulnerable to instability during subsequent rainfall; thus, strong earthquakes always have long-term effects on landslides. The geo-hazards along the Zhaotong-Qiaojia road in the 2014 Ludian earthquake (Ms 6.5) of Yunnan

This study aimed to reveal the soil properties in the research area by using various geophysical methods. Physical parameters determining soil characteristics give us a chance to approach how the soil behaves during an earthquake. Thus, precautions can be taken to minimize earthquake damage. Also, safe construction against earthquake effects is important. The studied area is a tectonically and geothermally

Mechanical behavior of the rock in tensile stress environment remains an unresolved problem in the underground mining, where surrounding rocks commonly experience tensile failure. In the present study, tensile failure behavior of three types of sedimentary rocks is investigated experimentally and numerically. The deformation response, fracture propagation, and splitting pattern as well as energy conversion

This study is the first attempt to apply fault-based and time-dependent seismicity models cooperatively for probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) of the Kerman and adjacent areas (54–59° E, 28.5–34° N). For this study, almost all available literature and databases have been investigated to compile reliable information reported as instrumental, historical, and paleoseismological events, together

The effects of thermal treatment on the pore structure and mechanical property evolution of granite were experimentally investigated to evaluate the risks of traditional and critical geothermal systems. The microstructure of thermally treated granite was studied using an optical microscope and nuclear magnetic resonance, and the mechanical properties of thermally treated granite were studied under

Topography is a crucial characteristic reflecting the stability status of a landslide dam. The methods for measuring landslide dam topography in a laboratory-scale test study are currently operator dependent, time-consuming, or only applicable to the measurement of the two-dimensional section. In this paper, a laboratory-scale photogrammetric method based on the structure from motion (SfM) technique

Sedimentary rocks with alternating mudstone and sandstone sequence are susceptible to landslides even under very gentle slope inclinations. Continued occurrences of such landslides in Nanjiang, South Western part of China, bring out the necessity for more understanding of their failure mechanism. In this study, we present a series of investigations on the physical, chemical, and mechanical characteristics

Airport runways built on reclaimed coral calcareous sand foundation on coral reef islands is a type of important infrastructure for marine science observation, marine disaster relief, and marine supplies. Creep behavior of coral calcareous sand foundation under long-term loading applied by overlying structures could cause continuous foundation settlement; and excessive settlement may affect the normal

Rainfall has become a main trigger of slope failure for embankments in most coastal areas in China. The microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) technique has great potential to improve soil strength and slope stability. In this study, three small-scale biotreated sand embankments and one untreated embankment were first prepared using the injection method. Rainfall scouring tests were then

Loess is found all over the world, accounting for about 10 % of the world’s total land area. This soil exhibits a distinctive behavior that is related to their formation history, mineralogy, and microstructure, which can cause serious geotechnical engineering problems. This paper presents the microstructural evolution of the subgrade loess of the Baozhong railway in Guyuan. Particularly, the collapse

This paper investigates the fracture evolution during rockbursts of granodiorite and basalt that appeared to be representatives of two different rockburst modes under true-triaxial loading using acoustic emission (AE) analysis. In the experiments, with the macroscale ejection and failure features captured and presented by the high-speed video imaging and failed specimens, the inside micro- or meso-scale

Earth pressure balance shield (EPBS) tunneling techniques originally developed for fine-grained soil deposits have been adopted in a growing number of tunneling projects where challenging geological conditions, such as those with coarse-grained soils, are encountered. However, successful application of EPBS tunneling with soil conditioning could fully address technical challenges during tunneling in

The article analyses the method of testing the abrasion resistance of sandstones on Böhme abrasion test apparatus and describes the problems related to the implementation of this test, as well as the interpretation of the results. The tests were conducted in accordance with the requirements of the EN14157 standard on 14 samples of dry and water-saturated sandstones. The analysis of the results showed

Land subsidence and earth fissures caused by excessive groundwater exploitation severely damage the surrounding property and environment. To examine changes caused by land subsidence and earth fissures, a large-scale physical-geological model was designed to simulate groundwater exploitation and the conditions of bedrock ridges. This model enables real-time monitoring of the groundwater level, soil

The Baihetan super-high arch dam is constructed under complicated geological conditions, including large-scale columnar jointed basalt (CJB) with closely spaced joints and multiple interlayer and intralayer shear belts at the lower part of dam base, which may increase a risk of seepage in adjacent dam foundations. Therefore, curtain grouting is used to reduce the permeability of dam foundations. Lugeon

Clays are very important in environmental geotechnical applications because of their characteristics. This paper considered over 500 data from literature and from laboratory. Undrained shear strength (remolded and undisturbed), liquidity index (IL), and water content ratio (WCR) have been compared among each other. Because natural clays have different physical and mineralogical properties, no unique

The geological integrity of the Loess Plateau is extremely weak. Following the concept and goal of harmonious co-existence between the human race and geo-environment, first, the high and steep slopes of the loess tableland located in a typical ecological restoration area (in Yan’an city, northern Shanxi) were selected as the demonstration area for studying disaster prevention and control. The research

The size reduction process of rocks in cone crushers is one of the most important issues, particularly for the secondary and tertiary stages of crushing operations. In this study, 17 different rock types were considered for the evaluation of their size reduction variations that occurred in a laboratory-scale cone crusher. Based on several mineralogical, physico-mechanical, and aggregate properties

The Chakdara Granitic Gneisses (CGG) of the Indian plate and Kamila Amphibolite of the Kohistan Island Arc (KIA) along the Main Mantle Thrust (MMT) in Shigo Kas, Talash Dir Lower, indicate that tectonically induced foliations and lineations strongly affected the geomechanical properties of these rocks. The earlier S1 crenulated cleavages are well preserved in the microlithon of a well-developed ENE-WSW

This paper experimentally evaluated the influences of the surface roughness and boundary load on the nonlinear flow behavior of real three-dimensional rock fractures. The rough fractures with various joint roughness coefficient (JRC) values in the range of 2.59 to 19.31 were generated with a fractal governing function, and the corresponding fractured granite specimens of a square plate shape in the

To analyse the impact of underground pressure on the variation in floor porosity and pore water pressure distribution during the coal seam mining process, this paper uses closed and open water pressure sensors to analyse rock pressure, water pressure zoning and layer distribution characteristics of the coal seam floor under mining effects based on a simulation analysis method using similar rock materials;

Assessment of wetting-induced deformation of coarse saline soil is required to facilitate the settlement control of infrastructures such as the transmission lines in Northwest China. The coarse saline soil exhibits high internal friction angle like common gravels and the cohesion up to 34.6 kPa, as revealed by direct shear tests. Laboratory wetting tests indicate that significant deformation occurs

In view of the dynamic instability of rock mass in high geostress areas during underground engineering excavation, the comprehensive weight and extension methods are adopted to research the rockburst prediction. Firstly, five main influencing factors including uniaxial compressive strength, stress coefficient, brittleness coefficient, elastic energy index, and integrity of rock mass are used as the

The expansive clayey soils show swelling-shrinkage behavior in wetting and drying cycles, respectively. The seasonal water content variations cause large volume changes of expansive clays, and consequently great losses on the infrastructure. In this study, the swelling-shrinkage behavior of a natural severely expansive clay was verified in its natural state and after being improved by nanosilica and

The mapping unit is the smallest indivisible unit of landslide susceptibility mapping. The mapping unit considerably affects the effect of landslide susceptibility mapping. Among many mapping units, the slope unit is one of the most suitable units for landslide susceptibility mapping. The methods available for classifying slope unit are not uniform, and the dividing effects differ. In this study, the

Microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is one of the environmentally friendly techniques that has recently become popular amongst geotechnical engineers. Two bacterial species of Bacillus family, i.e., B. pasteurii and B. megaterium have been used to improve the loess soil properties. A set of unconfined compressive, permeability, ultrasonic, and collapse potential tests have been applied to

Soil liquefaction during large earthquakes causes serious damage to structures built on foundations. In recent years, artificially injecting small amounts of air into liquefaction-susceptible soils has been proposed as a newly developed and cost-effective liquefaction mitigation method. Nevertheless, the liquefaction response of piles through this method has not been investigated so far. A series of

The phenomenon of toppling deformation and failure is ubiquitous in layered anti-dip rock slope. In this paper, the development process of toppling deformation and failure is simulated by similar tests. In the test, the rock test model of soft-hard interbedding is established by the law of similarity. Based on the test results, the process of soft-hard interbedded rock toppling deformation is simulated

Assessment of the stability for an earth dam under seismic loadings is presented in a probabilistic framework. The geotechnical parameters measured at the dam site permit a realistic description of the soil variability for the dam and the superficial foundation. An active learning sparse polynomial chaos expansions (A-bSPCE) combined with Monte Carlo simulation is employed to quantify the uncertainty

This study addresses the crack evolution law and shear behavior of weak muddy intercalations (WMIs) during wetting-drying cycles. The original crack images of WMI were processed; adjustments were made to overcome the reflective differences of crack on the surface of the WMI samples caused by the uneven surface and impurities, effectively distinguishing the crack and non-crack areas in the images of

Landslide dams are formed mostly in V-shaped valleys, with poor stability and a high risk of failure. Once landslide dams fail, they may cause floods or debris flows that endanger lives, property, and infrastructure downstream. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the stability immediately once a landslide dam is formed. The geometry of a landslide dam is the most critical to its stability assessment

In this study, different interpretation techniques have been applied to the airborne magnetic data to detect the subsurface basaltic edges in Qaret Had El Bahr area, Northeastern Bahariya Oasis, Egypt. These techniques are as follows: the power spectrum, Source Parameter Imaging (SPI), tilt derivative or tilt angle, Euler deconvolution, and forward modeling. The depth to the basement calculated from

In order to deeply study the failure mechanism of red clay slope engineering under the influence of gradients and natural environment, Guizhou red clay was chosen as the research object and two slope models with different gradients were established respectively. The indoor dry-wet cycle test of the red clay slope was conducted. With the finite element software, this study examined the evolution of

Biochar is a carbon-rich material produced mainly from plant- and animal-based biomass through thermochemical conversion. It is often amended to soil for methane oxidation in landfill cover soil and for improving crop growth and yield by enhancing soil fertility. The application of biochar for removing organic and inorganic pollutants from soil and water is also well established. Biochar could be of

This paper presents results of the direct shear tests on pre-fractured specimens from Rurikfjellet Formation, Svalbard, Arctic Norway. It also evaluates the risk of shear failure along pre-existing fractures due to possible over pressure. Rurikfjellet Formation is composed of clay-rich shale and is part of the cap rock for the proposed CO2 storage pilot at Svalbard. Shear properties of the cap rock

Seepage-induced internal erosion is observed in both artificially engineered fill structures and natural soil deposits. Fine content is of great significance for the fabric of soil. This paper aimed to determine the critical fine contents of natural soil deposits beyond which the internal stability of the mix was distinctly altered and illustrate the internal erodibility from the viewpoint of fabric

The abundance of mining activities continuously increases mine wastes/tailings that require storage/disposal. It is well understood that the accumulation of tailings around mines, and consequently, their spreading in the environment could cause serious ecological hazards. Reuse and recycling of mine tailing materials, in construction and earthwork applications (such as non-structural building elements

The use of rod extensometers is one of the most commonly used monitoring methods for the prediction of yielding zones of underground openings. However, this method requires expensive and long-term measurements. In this study, comprehensive investigations were carried out to determine the performance of the pressuremeter test as for rapid in situ measurement methods to expeditiously estimate the boundary

A μ(I) rheology–based avalanche flow model whose governing equations are established in a rectangular Cartesian coordinate system is proposed in this paper. The motivation is updating the term related to gradients of the depth-averaged pressure and extending the application of μ(I) rheology to natural avalanche simulation. The main advantage of the proposed method is that it captures the constitutive

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the deformation characteristics and reactivation mechanisms of a giant ancient translational landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) based on more than 6 years of monitoring data with the assistance of in situ surveys. The Outang landslide, divided into three active parts, has a total volume of approximately 90 million m3 and slides along weak interlayers

The prediction of the risk of rockbursts in burst-prone grounds is turned into a challenging and vital mission for most underground projects that attract great interest from engineers and researchers. In this study, a hybrid technique, the artificial neural network (ANN) and artificial bee colony (ABC), neuro-bee model, was considered to create the sophisticated relationship between the risk of rockbursts