Influence of Rainfall Patterns on the Instability of Slopes

Abstract

The assessment of rainstorm - induced shallow landslides is still a research topic of wide concern for scientists and engineers . This paper examined the effect of rainfall intensity distribution on shallow landslides . Four synthetic rainfall distributions comprising uniformed , delayed , centralized , and advanced , were selected to examine the effect of rainstorm patterns on slope failure . The infiltration was modeled using Green - Ampt equation , while an infinite slope was selected to model the shallow landslide . Monte Carlo Simulation was applied to analyze the failure probability of the slopes . Two landslide cases were selected to examine the proposed model . The results indicated that among the four representative rainstorm patterns , the advanced rainfall pattern caused worst slope stability . The advanced rainfall pattern resulted in the shortest rainfall duration threshold for landslide occurrence , followed by the central , uniform , and then delayed rainfall pattern . The probabilistic analysis method was suitable to estimate the time of failure for the evaluated landslide cases .