Problem:

The long-term performance of many geotechnical structures can be related to climatic events. In particular the response of poor water pressures to rainstorms can have potentially adverse effects on most geo-structures including earth levees, natural and designed slopes, and especially remedial earth covers. Too much infiltration from storm events can lead to slope failures or excessive infiltration through earth covers. The critical question is how much precipitation actually overcomes the evaporative process and results in deep infiltration? In particular, the balance between precipitation, potential evaporation (PE), and actual evaporation must be established on the upper boundary of numerical models. The majority of most seepage numerical models do not currently account for coupled climate.

Solution:

SVFlux implements a fully coupled climatic boundary condition based on the Wilson -- Penman methodology. This allows weather station data including precipitation to be input to the software and detailed calculations then calculate actual evaporation (AE). Thus truly infiltration into a slope can be calculated in any SVFlux model. The resulting pore-water pressures can then be exported to a slope stability analysis to determine the impact of any climatic event on the factor of safety of a slope.

The models presented in this section illustrate this concept.

Additional Articles

• Coupled Climate Slope Stability