Some numerical considerations in unsaturated slope stability analysis due to rainfall infiltration

Abstract

Accurate prediction of the propagating wetting front arising from rainfall infiltration into an unsaturated soil slope is of considerable importance to stability analysis of the slope. However, difficulties exist in numerical simulations of unsaturated flow analyses because of the highly nonlinear soil hydraulic properties. This paper emphasizes the slow convergence of calculated pressure heads with the refinement of mesh sizes and time steps, and discusses possible solutions. © 2008 Science Press Beijing and Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Mitigation and Rehabilitation.