An Approach to Assess the Stability of Unsaturated Multilayered Coastal-Embankment Slope during Rainfall Infiltration

This study aims to develop a simple but effective approach to investigate the stability of an unsaturated and multilayered coastal-embankment slope during the rainfall, in which a Random Search Algorithm (RSA) based on the random sampling idea of the Monte Carlo method was employed to obtain the most dangerous circular sliding surface, whereas the safety factor of the unsaturated slope was calculated by the modified Morgenstern-Price method. Firstly, two typical distributions of matric suction were illustrated and the associated methods for determining the strength parameters of unsaturated soil were developed. Based on this, the Morgenstern-Price method was further modified to calculate the safety factor, and RSA was adopted to locate the most dangerous sliding surface of the unsaturated multilayered coastal-embankment slope. Finally, the slope breaking process under rainfall infiltration was simulated through continuously searching the critical slip surfaces under different groundwater levels by RSA. The results indicated that the stability of the unsaturated embankment slope was gradually deteriorated with the increase of rainfall infiltration. It was also found that both of the distributions of the matrix suction (u(a)-u(w)) and the suction angle (phi(b)) had significant effects on the safety factor of the embankment slope. Basically, linear distribution of (u(a)-u(w)) along the depth and linear relationship between phi(b) and (u(a)-u(w)) should be adopted in assessing the stability of the unsaturated multilayered coastal-embankment slope.