Ming Wanga,b,c, Kai Liua,b,c, Guiling Yangb,c and Jun Xieb,c
a State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China;
b Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management, Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Education,Beijing, China;
c Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Corresponding author: Kai Liu (liukai@bnu.edu.cn)
ABSTRACT: Detailed surface topography is important when analyzing the stability of slopes. Recent advances in new technologies such as interferometric synthetic aperture radar and light detection and ranging have allowed us to obtain high-precision profiles of distant landscapes and objects including detailed slope information for three-dimensional (3D) slope stability analysis. However, techniques of reconstructing 3D numerical models from scanned data of slope geometry have not been well investigated or tested. This paper proposes a comprehensive approach that integrates laser scanning and finite element method for slope stability analysis, particularly failure prediction under precipitation scenarios. The methodology is applied to a slope in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken mountainous region that failed in 2013, triggered by severe rainfall. The modelling results show that the surface sampling resolution can affect the prediction accuracy of the potential failure zones. When constructing the slope model, the selected surface grid should be fine enough to capture the important topographic features of the slope while minimizing computation demand. This paper confirms that the proposed method can be successfully used to identify the potential failure zones of the investigated slope under severe rainfall conditions.
KEYWORDS: Landslide; finite element; laser scanning; numerical simulation; rainfall
Published in Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk
DOI: 10.1080/19475705.2017.1290696
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19475705.2017.1290696
