New types of failure mechanisms for flowslide

Abstract

Flowslide is a common type of failure of granular soil slopes. Although many flowslides can be explained using static liquefaction or instability behaviour of sand under undrained conditions, some of the failures might have occurred under essentially drained conditions. In this paper, some flowslide case histories are reviewed. Typical flowslides and the possible failure mechanisms behind each flowslide are identified. Based on the laboratory studies, two new failure mechanisms are proposed and used to offer new interpretations to some of the failure cases.

Keywords:

• flowslides
• sand
• laboratory tests
• liquefaction
• triaxial
• plane-strain

Acknowledgements

The first author wishes to thank the British Council for the financial support of his Visiting Fellowship at University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.