O crescimento econômico acarreta na necessidade de aumento de capacidade de rodovias existentes. Quando localizadas em meia-encostas, muitas vezes estão vinculadas a ocorrências de instabilidade de modo que obras de aumento da capacidade geram grande impacto. O objetivo desta pesquisa é avaliar o aumento de capacidade de um trecho da Rodovia ERS/122, minimizando os impactos através da definição da seção-tipo com dimensões mínimas, segurança para o usuário, e utilização de um material leve como aterro a ser construído na meia encosta. O principal material avaliado para utilização como aterro são restos de pneus triturados, já encontrados no mercado atual. A avaliação desta solução de aterro em meia encosta decorre principalmente do fato de evitar desmontes de rocha que ocasionariam a interrupção do tráfego em uma importante rodovia do estado. Aliado a isso, é baixa a ocorrência de solos de boa qualidade no trecho, de modo que o aterro é geralmente realizado com materiais rochosos de ocorrência local ou materiais importados. A possibilidade de diminuir a utilização de um material nobre a ser explorado na natureza, juntamente com a utilização de materiais que ainda não possuem 100% de destinação adequada, aliada ao baixo peso específico e adequada resistência ao cisalhamento, incentivaram a realização dos estudos. Ensaios de resistência ao cisalhamento e comportamento de compressão foram realizados para avaliar os parâmetros geotécnicos, a fim de obter um modelo geomecânico. Devido aos resultados de teste satisfatórios, tem sido considerado possível o uso de tais materiais. Os parâmetros obtidos em condições de confinamento foram aceitáveis para aterros de rodovias especialmente quando as aparas de pneus foram misturadas com agregados rochosos. Seu uso como um material de aterro pode ser incentivado, a fim de reduzir o uso de rochas naturais, para obter uma utilização adequada de restos de pneus e para gerar uma maior estabilidade dos aterros com a substituição de solos com comportamento geotécnico pobre. Isto é conseguido principalmente pela diminuição do peso do aterro, pela melhoraria das condições de drenagem e pela definição de uma seção transversal geometricamente segura. / Economic growth leads to the need to increase the capacity of existing highways. When crossing natural slopes often are linked to occurrences of instability so that increased work capacity generate big impact. The objective of this research is to evaluate the increase in capacity of a highway stretch ERS / 122, minimizing impacts by setting the standard section with minimum dimensions, but safe for the user, using a lightweight material as fill. The main material evaluated for use as embankment is shredded tire debris, already found on the market. The evaluation of this embankment solution on natural slopes is mainly to avoid rock blasting which would interrupt the traffic on this important State highway. As there is few occurrences of good quality soil near the construction sites, the fills are usually built with local or imported rock materials. The ability to reduce the use of rock to be exploited from nature by the use of recycled materials combined with its low specific weight and adequate shear strength encouraged this study. Tests of shear strength and compression behavior were carried out to evaluate geotechnical parameters in order to obtain a geomechanical model. Due to satisfactory test results the use of such materials has been considered possible. The parameters obtained on confined conditions were acceptable for road fills especially when scrab tires were mixed with rock aggregates. Its use as an embankment material can be incentivatedf in order to reduce the use natural rocks, to obtain an adequate use for tire scraps and to generate a greater stability for embankments as replacement of soils with poor geotechnical behavior. This is achieved mainly by decreasing landfill weight, improving the drainage conditions and definition of geometrically safe embankment cross-section.

Deslizamentos em solos tropicais são frequentemente resultados do avanço de uma frente de umedecimento devido às águas das chuvas. O avanço desta frente de umedecimento provoca elevação da poro-pressão de água ou redução da sucção, e consequentemente, perda de resistência do solo. Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre a resistência ao cisalhamento dos solos não saturados, abrangendo uma fase experimental envolvendo ensaios de caracterização, resistência e obtenção das propriedades hidráulicas dos solos e um estudo numérico, com o objetivo de verificar o comportamento da poro-pressão no interior de um talude e a influência na sua estabilidade. Os ensaios de resistência foram realizados no aparato de cisalhamento direto, para a condição inundada, e no aparato de compressão simples com medida direta de sucção, por meio do tensiômetro de alta capacidade (TAC), para a condição não saturada. O equipamento TRIFLEX 2 foi utilizado para se determinar os coeficientes de permeabilidade na condição saturada, e as curvas de retenção foram obtidas utilizando-se a placa de sucção, o TAC e o método do papel filtro. A partir dos resultados obtidos na fase experimental, avaliou-se a influência das características das precipitações (duração e intensidade), condições inicias de sucção no talude e das propriedades hidráulicas dos solos na variação da poro-pressão de água, no interior do talude, ao longo do tempo. Paralelamente à variação da poro-pressão de água, foi obtida a variação do fator de segurança durante e após a precipitação. / Landslides in tropical soils are often the result of advance of the wetting due to rainfall. This advance results from an increase in pore water pressure, reduction in present soil matric suction, reduction in the shear strength of the soil. This work will present a study related to the shear strength of unsaturated soils, including an experimental study, involving characterization, shear strength tests and obtaining hydraulic characteristics of the soils. There is also a numeric study with the aim to analyze the pore water pressure behavior in slopes and its influence in the slope stability. The shear strength tests were carried out in the direct shear test device, for the flooded condition, and concerning the unconfined compression with direct measured matric suction using a high capacity tensiometer (HCT) placed at the base of the sample, for the unsaturated condition. The permeability tests were carried out with TRIFLEX 2 device, and the retention curves were determined using suction plate, HCT and filtered paper. The experimental data permitted the evaluation of the influence of the characteristics of the rainfall (duration and intensity), initial conditions of the slope and of the hydraulic characteristics of the soils in the pore-pressure change of water in the slope, during the test time. In parallel to the pore pressure change of water, the variations of the safety factors during and after the rainfall were obtained.

Taludes formados por solos na condição não saturada são muito comuns no Brasil. Nestes casos a poro-pressão de água contribui para a estabilidade desses taludes. Este trabalho pretende avaliar o efeito do tipo de revestimento superficial na alteração do perfil de poro-pressão de água provocado por fluxos gerados a partir de precipitações, evaporação e evapo-transpiração, e conseqüentemente na estabilidade de talude experimental. São apresentadas aqui as características geológico-geotécnica, geomorfológica, climática e pluviométrica de campo experimental implantado na zona leste de São Paulo/SP, onde foram instalados e monitorados tensiômetros, pluviômetro e medidor de nível dágua por um período oito meses. Resultados de ensaios de caracterização, resistência e obtenção das propriedades hidráulicas dos solos que compõem o maciço estudado são analisados, assim como ensaios realizados com a argamassa de revestimento do talude, ensaios para a análise do funcionamento dos tensímetros e tubos tensiométricos utilizados no monitoramento, e outros ensaios realizados in situ. O monitoramento realizado indicou coerência entre precipitações e variação da poropressão de água, e variação do nível dágua do terreno, em ambos os tipos de revestimento superficial, vegetação natural e argamassa, nos dois tipos de solo presentes no maciço. Análises de estabilidade do talude indicaram o efeito do tipo de revestimento superficial e das variações sazonais de poro-pressão de água no fator de segurança ao escorregamento do talude. / Slopes formed by unsaturated soils are very common in Brazil. In these cases porewater pressure contribute for the slope stability behavior. This work aims at evaluating the effects of types of superficial coating on the profile of pore-water pressure changes, due to flow generated by precipitation, evaporation and evapotranspiration, and consequently on the stability of a experimental slope. It is presented here the geological-geotechnical, geomorfological, climatic and pluvial characterizations of the experimental field located in the east zone of São Paulo/SP, where have been installed and monitored tensiometers, pluviometer and groundwater level measurer during eight months. Results of tests of characterization, shear strength, and for obtaining the hydraulic properties of the in situ soils are analyzed, as well as the tests carried out with de mortar applied over the slope, as well as the functionality tests for the tensimeters and tensiometric tubes used on the monitoring, as well as other in situ tests. Monitoring indicated coherence between precipitation and change in pore-water pressure profile, and groundwater level, in both types of superficial coatings, natural vegetation and mortar, and in both types of in situ soils. Stability analyzes indicated the effect of the type of superficial coating and of the variation of pore-water pressure profile, during the experiment, on the factor of safety of the experimental slope.

The City of Winnipeg, located at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, has over 240 km of natural riverbank property. The increased frequency and magnitude of flooding along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers over the past decade appears to have influenced the number of slope failures along riverbank property, resulting in the loss of both public green space and privately owned land. The loss of private and public property adjacent to the river has led to the loss of valuable real estate and public parkland amenities. To ensure that riverbank property is preserved for future generations, the City of Winnipeg wants to increase the stability of certain reaches of publicly owned riverbank property along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers that are prone to slope movements. Extensive research has been conducted on slope stability problems in the Winnipeg area, but a transparent prioritization procedure for the remediation of riverbank stability problems has not existed. Therefore, a Riverbank Asset Management System (RAMS) was developed for publicly owned riverbank property to prioritize riverbank slope stability problems along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The RAMS provides the City of Winnipeg with a rational approach for determining risk levels for specific reaches of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The calculated risk levels allow the City to develop recommended response levels for slope stability remediation projects in a fiscally responsible manner with minimal personal and political influences. This system permits the City to facilitate timely and periodic reviews of priority sites as riverbank conditions and input parameters change. / May 2009

Landslides in Pleistocene sediments along the Thompson River, south of Ashcroft, British Columbia have been known since before the Canadian Pacific (CP) railway was built through the valley in the 1880s. The Canadian National (CN) mainline railway, built in the early twentieth century, also follows the valley. Since the CP mainline was open to traffic in 1886, landslides have occurred along both sides of the Thompson valley and have resulted in derailments and traffic disruption along this strategic railway corridor. Past work identified a critical interbedded glaciolacustrine silt and clay unit at the base of the valley fill in which the sliding planes of the landslides were located. In our geotechnical characterization of this unit we identify the clay as the main contributing factor towards the instability of slopes in the Thompson River Valley due to its low residual strength parameters. Ring shear testing of this unit indicate residual friction angles between 10o and 15o. The use of residual shear strength parameters is necessitated by the presence of pre-sheared surfaces in the valley fill material caused by historical landsliding and glacial overriding. An additional contributing factor to slope instability in Thompson River Valley is the presence of artesian pore water pressures located below the failure surfaces of landslides in the valley. Previously suggested explanations for development of the elevated pore pressures include dynamic change in the Thompson River stage, and over irrigation of upslope farm lands. Groundwater models of Thompson River Valley were constructed using the advanced modeling tool HydroGeoSphere in order to determine the origin of these elevated pressures, and to explore additional influences on the regional groundwater flow system, including irrigation and river stage. Analysis of groundwater simulations showed that due to its low permeability, the glaciolacustrine silt and clay unit is important in controlling groundwater flow patterns, and explains the development of artesian pressures in the valley bottom. Further, it was shown that fluctuation in river stage and additional infiltration due to irrigation of upslope farm lands had minimal impact on pore water pressures, and cannot explain the development of landslides in the study area. Groundwater simulations were coupled with slope stability analyses in order to assess the slope Factor of Safety associated with certain groundwater conditions. This was achieved by using SLOPE/W and SEEP/W. Slopes were found to be unstable under natural conditions with a Factor of Safety close to unity. Significant changes to the Factor of Safety were noted for scenarios where precipitation was doubled and halved, but irrigation was again shown to have a minimal effect on the stability of Thompson Valley slopes.

Landslides in Pleistocene sediments along the Thompson River, south of Ashcroft, British Columbia have been known since before the Canadian Pacific (CP) railway was built through the valley in the 1880s. The Canadian National (CN) mainline railway, built in the early twentieth century, also follows the valley. Since the CP mainline was open to traffic in 1886, landslides have occurred along both sides of the Thompson valley and have resulted in derailments and traffic disruption along this strategic railway corridor. Past work identified a critical interbedded glaciolacustrine silt and clay unit at the base of the valley fill in which the sliding planes of the landslides were located. In our geotechnical characterization of this unit we identify the clay as the main contributing factor towards the instability of slopes in the Thompson River Valley due to its low residual strength parameters. Ring shear testing of this unit indicate residual friction angles between 10o and 15o. The use of residual shear strength parameters is necessitated by the presence of pre-sheared surfaces in the valley fill material caused by historical landsliding and glacial overriding. An additional contributing factor to slope instability in Thompson River Valley is the presence of artesian pore water pressures located below the failure surfaces of landslides in the valley. Previously suggested explanations for development of the elevated pore pressures include dynamic change in the Thompson River stage, and over irrigation of upslope farm lands. Groundwater models of Thompson River Valley were constructed using the advanced modeling tool HydroGeoSphere in order to determine the origin of these elevated pressures, and to explore additional influences on the regional groundwater flow system, including irrigation and river stage. Analysis of groundwater simulations showed that due to its low permeability, the glaciolacustrine silt and clay unit is important in controlling groundwater flow patterns, and explains the development of artesian pressures in the valley bottom. Further, it was shown that fluctuation in river stage and additional infiltration due to irrigation of upslope farm lands had minimal impact on pore water pressures, and cannot explain the development of landslides in the study area. Groundwater simulations were coupled with slope stability analyses in order to assess the slope Factor of Safety associated with certain groundwater conditions. This was achieved by using SLOPE/W and SEEP/W. Slopes were found to be unstable under natural conditions with a Factor of Safety close to unity. Significant changes to the Factor of Safety were noted for scenarios where precipitation was doubled and halved, but irrigation was again shown to have a minimal effect on the stability of Thompson Valley slopes.

In this study, the failure mechanism of the shore landslide which occured at Degirmendere coast region during 17 August 1999 Kocaeli (Izmit) - Turkey earthquake is analyzed. Geotechnical studies of the region are at hand, which reveal soil properties and geological formation of the region as well as the topography of the shore basin after deformations. The failure is analyzed as a landslide and permanent displacements are calculated by Newmark Method under 17 August 1999 Izmit record, scaled to a maximum acceleration of 0.4g. There are discussions on the main dominating mechanism of failure / landslide, liquefaction, fault rupture and lateral spreading. According to the studies, the failure mechanism is a seismically induced shore landslide also triggered by liquefaction and fault rupture, accompanied by the mechanism of lateral spreading by turbulence. A seismically induced landslide is discussed and modeled in this study. The finite element programs TELSTA and TELDYN are employed for static and dynamic analyses. Slope stability analyses are performed with the program SLOPE. The permanent displacements are calculated with Newmark Method, with the help of a MATLAB program, without considering the excess pore pressures.

Slope movements cause considerable damage to life and property in Turkey as well as in the world. Although they do not typically cause loss of life, slow landslide movements can severely damage structures, interrupt the serviceability of lifelines / and, related stabilization efforts can be too costly. Most of these slow-moving landslides are reactivated landslides in stiff clays and shales, and they are mainly triggered by rainfall induced high pore water pressures. In this study, a number of reactivated, slow-moving landslide case histories with extensive pore pressure and movement data are selected for further analysis. For these landslides, the relation between pore water pressures, factor of safety and rate of movements of the slide are investigated by using limit equilibrium and finite element methods. It is found that there is a nonlinear relationship between these three variables. Sensitivity of slow moving landslides to changes in pore water pressure is developed by defining the percent change in factor of safety and percent change in pore pressure coefficient, for 10-fold change in velocity. Such relations could especially be useful in planning required level of remediation, for example, to decide on how many meters the ground water level should be lowered at a certain piezometric location, so that the stability increases to a desired level of F.S., and movement rates are reduced to an acceptable slow rate.

Evaluation of the seismic stability of slopes often involves an estimate of the expected sliding displacements. This evaluation requires a suite of acceleration-time histories as input motions. The methods of selecting and scaling these motions can affect the computed sliding displacements. Linear scaling of recorded ground motions and modification of recorded motions by spectral matching are common approaches used for ground motion selection and these approaches were used in this study to select motions for use in sliding displacement analyses. Rigid sliding block analyses and decoupled flexible sliding block analyses were performed using a suite of linearly scaled motions and a suite of spectrally matched motions. . Generally, the spectrally matched motions predict 10 to 30%, on average, smaller displacements and significantly less variability than the linearly scaled motions, when both suites of input motions were developed to match the same acceleration response spectrum. When both suites of input motions were developed to match the same peak ground velocity and acceleration response spectrum, the spectrally matched motions generally predict 5 to 15%, on average, larger displacements than the linearly scaled motions. Because ground motion parameters beyond acceleration response spectrum affect the computed sliding displacement, parameters such as peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV) and mean period (T[subscript m]) should be considered in selecting and scaling motions for use in sliding displacement analyses. / text

The rigid sliding-block analysis introduced by Newmark in 1965 has become a popular method for assessing the stability of slopes during earthquakes. Estimates of sliding displacement calculated using this methodology serve as an index of seismic performance and are used for mapping seismic landslide hazard potential. The original approach of rigorously integrating ground acceleration time-histories to compute estimates of sliding displacement has been replaced by the use of simple, empirical models that predict displacement as a function of a slope's yield acceleration and one or more measures of ground shaking. To be useful the results of these models must be compared with observations of landslides from previous earthquakes. Seven different empirical models were evaluated by comparing predicted displacements with an inventory of observed landslides from the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake. Using a comprehensive set of ground motion data and shear strength properties from the Northridge earthquake, sliding displacements were calculated within a geographic information system (GIS) and the accuracy of each model was computed. The influence of factors such as landslide size, geologic unit, slope angle, and material strength on the prediction of landslides was also evaluated. The results were used to show that the accuracy of the predictive models depends less on the model used and more on the uncertainty in the model parameters, specifically the assigned shear strength values. Because current approaches do not take into account the spatial variability of strength within individual geologic units, the accuracy of the predictive models is controlled by the distribution of slope angles within observed and predicted landslide cells. Assigning overly conservative (low) shear strength values results in a higher percentage of landslides accurately identified, but also results in a large over-estimation of the seismic landslide hazard. / text