Types of flowslide failures and possible failure mechanisms

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 failure 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, new failure mechanisms are proposed and used to offer new interpretations to some of the failure cases. © 2008 Science Press Beijing and Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Mitigation and Rehabilitation.