ESC. SUP DE INGENIERÍA “LIC.

ADOLFO LOPEZ MATEOS”

Geospatial distribution of unsaturated soil

properties for slope stability assessment
Diseño y Operación de almacenamiento de residuos
MC. Christian Lucas Rodríguez

Autores
Jiménez García Roberto
Zúñiga Ibarra Aarón
Álvarez González Víctor
 ABSTRACT
• Rainfall-induced slope failures occur frequently in many tropical regions of the world. In Singapore, slope
failures can often be observed in residual soils with a significant thickness of unsaturated zone above the
groundwater table.
As a result, the factor of safety of residual soil slope is affected dynamically by the climate change. The
coefficient of permeability and the shear strength of unsaturated soil are a function of matric suction that
change significantly during rainfall.
These unsaturated property changes affect stability of residual soil slope during rainfall and these changes
can best be described using soil-water characteristic curve of the soil. The residual soil properties vary
significantly and spatially due to the varying degrees of weathering.

Therefore, it is important to understand the spatial variation of saturated and unsaturated soil properties in a
particular area in order to assess the vulnerability of slopes to failure due to rainfall.

The geospatial distributions of soil properties were developed based on numerous data of the measured soil
properties from site investigations on slopes at various locations.
ABSTRACT
• The geospatial distributions of soil properties were
developed based on numerous data of the measured
soil properties.

• One failed slope was used to

validate the accuracy of the
developed geospatial distributions.

• Seepage and slope stability analyses

were carried out for this validation slope
using the soil properties measured from
the laboratory tests
INTRODUCTION
• Residual soil is the product of the in-situ mechanical and chemical weathering of underlying rocks, which
have lost their original rock fabrics (Wesley 1990). Thick layers of residual soil are commonly found in
tropical regions with warm to hot climate.
• The geology of Singapore:

Igneous rocks of granite (Bukit Timah Granite)

Sedimentary rocks (Jurong Formation)

Semi-hardened alluvium (Old Alluvium)

 INTRODUCTION
Igneous rocks of granite (Bukit Timah Granite)
•• Residual
Residual soils
soils from Bukit Timah
are usually found Granite are made
unsaturated, since up of
they
mainly silt particles
are often observedwith
abovesome
the clay contents
ground water and
tablethey are
where
usually medium to highly plastic
the pore-water pressures are negative.

• During rainfall, water flows into the unsaturated zone,

Sedimentary rocks (Jurong Formation) causing the pore-water pressure to increase and the
shear strength of residual soil to decrease. As a result,
• Have mainly clay contents
rainfall-induced with sands
slope failures or siltshappen
frequently and they
inare
the
usually
tropicalmedium to highly
areas which plastic covered with residual soil
are mainly

• Brand (1985) and Rahardjo et al. (2012b) observed that

residual soils were difficult to test due to their
Semi-hardened alluvium (Old Alluvium)
heterogeneity.
• Covers older rocks beneath in the east of Singapore
INTRODUCTION
• Classic statistical methods may be inadequate for interpolation of
spatially dependent variables since these methods assume random
variation and do not consider spatial correlation and relative locations
of soil samples. Geostatistical analyses recognize these difficulties and
provide tools to facilitate the geospatial distribution of residual soil
properties.
SITE INVESTIGATION
Site investigations were conducted on 14 slopes
within residual soils from Bukit Timah Granite in
Singapore

Thirteen (13) slopes were used for the

development of geospatial distributions of
saturated and unsaturated soil properties

One (1) slope at Ang Mo Kio St 21 was used

for the validation of the developed geospatial
distributions
 SITE INVESTIGATION
• Laboratory tests were performed on the undisturbed soil samples
obtained from site investigations of the fourteen slopes.

Saturated permeability index

Soilwater characteristic curves (SWCC)
Saturated and unsaturated triaxial tests

• The soil samples were classified under the Unified Soil Classification
System (USCS) using the information from the index properties tests
(ASTM D2487-10).
 SITE INVESTIGATION
• The SWCC was obtained from combination of two different tests using Tempe cell and
pressure plate apparatus following the procedures explained in Fredlund et al. (2012).

• Saturated permeability was measured using a triaxial permeameter with two back-
pressure systems as described in Head (1986).

• Saturated shear strength parameters were obtained from consolidated undrained triaxial
tests with pore-water pressure measurements (ASTM D4767-04)

• whereas unsaturated shear strength parameter, was obtained from consolidated drained
triaxial tests using a modified triaxial apparatus (Fredlund and Rahardjo 1993).
 GEOSPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL
PROPERTIES
• Geostatistical analyses provide methods for processing data in digital
soil mapping. The core elements of geostatistical analyses are the
interpolation methods. One commonly used method is Kriging which
is an interpolation method based on the distance-weighting and
semivariogram function approach to find the unknown data between
measured/known locations.
• Ordinary Kriging was used in the development of geospatial
distribution of the saturated and unsaturated properties of residual
soil from Bukit Timah Granite. The geostatistical analyses were carried
out using ArcGIS software.
Kriging: Un Método de Interpolación sobre Datos Dispersos

Kriging es un método de estimación que da la mejor estimación lineal insesgada de los valores de los
puntos, esto es, elegir el promedio ponderado de los valores de las muestras la cual tenga la mínima
varianza.

• Hay diferentes variaciones del método kriging, entre ellas están:

1. Kriging Simple (SK).
2. Kriging Ordinario (OK).
3. Kriging Universal (UK).

La precisión de los métodos depende de varios factores:

1 El número de muestras y la calidad de los datos en cada punto.
2 La posición de las muestras en el deposito.
3 La distancia entre las muestras y el punto a ser estimado.
4 La continuidad espacial bajo consideración.
En el software ArcGIS:

Se georreferencio el mapa de singapur con las coordenadas de la zona en la que se

estudio.
Tabla . Propiedades del suelo de la investigación sobre el terreno de 13
pendientes utilizadas en los análisis geoespaciales de este estudio.

Los parámetros
Ang Mo Kio de entrada
St 21 para los
análisis de kriging en le mapa de
singapur ykslos=datos
8.5e-5 m propiedades
de las /s
del suelo: AEV = 9 kPa
c '= 5 kPa
• SWCC
' = 30o
• permeabilidad saturada ( k s )
 b =de18o
• parámetros resistencia
al cizallamiento
• Cohesión
• Angulo de fricción
 GEOSPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL PROPERTIES
• CASE 123
GEOSPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL PROPERTIES
 4 ANÁLISIS DE filtración Y ESTABILIDAD DE PENDIENTE PARA LA
VALIDACIÓN DE LA DISTRIBUCIÓN GEOESPACIAL

Se realizaron 4 análisis utilizando

como parámetros:
• Geometría
• Nivel freático
• Pendiente
• Condición del limite
 4 ANÁLISIS DE filtración Y ESTABILIDAD DE PENDIENTE PARA LA
VALIDACIÓN DE LA DISTRIBUCIÓN GEOESPACIAL
• •Sin
•Deembargo
Para
igual para
el caso
manera ellaKAngulo
1 la AEV de fricción
S Estimada
tiene untiene efectivo
valor valory
unelevado
elen
Angulo
elevado en
relación todos
enal casolos
relación casos
3.casotiene
2 yal 2 y 3.una similitud
• Teniendo en cuenta la resistencia al
cizallamiento, el caso 1 tendrá que tener un
factor de seguridad mayor que en los casos 2 y 3.
como resultado el agua se infiltrara mas
rápido dentro de la capa de pendiente del
• Con la tabla se comprueba que la permeabilidad
caso 1 a comparación
saturada del caso
tendrá tendencia con 1respecto
y 2. al
numero de lugares investigados en la obtención
de la distribución geoespacial.

• La permeabilidad disminuyo con la disminución

de números de ubicaciones de investigación.
4 ANÁLISIS DE filtración Y ESTABILIDAD DE PENDIENTE PARA LA
VALIDACIÓN DE LA DISTRIBUCIÓN GEOESPACIAL
• análisis de filtración:
Se realizaron análisis de filtración transitorios utilizando el software de
elementos finitos, SEEP/W (Geoslope 2012A).
Utilizando datos de la junta de energía y utilidades, singapur. Y valores
de la estructura.
-Precipitación de 528mm/ día
-Altura de pendiente (8 mts)
Angulo de inclinación de las secciones(37° y 33°)
4 ANÁLISIS DE filtración Y ESTABILIDAD DE PENDIENTE PARA LA
VALIDACIÓN DE LA DISTRIBUCIÓN GEOESPACIAL

• análisis de estabilidad:
se realizaron análisis de estabilidad utilizando
Slope/W (Geoslope 2012B)
Los datos que utilizo fueron:
-las presiones de poro-agua en diferentes etapas
de tiempo obtenidas a partir de los análisis de
filtración V, 1, 2 y 3
-los factores de seguridad para las diferentes
• Variación
etapas de tiempo, se calcularon mediante el factor de seguridad.
de el
método simplificado de Bishop
Como el factor de seguridad mas alto es el de el
análisis V en comparación a los demás, esto
puede ser generado por la menor permeabilidad
del suelo insaturado.
la diferencia del factor con respecto a los otros
conclusiones
• Los resultados del estudio indican que las distribuciones
geoespaciales del número apropiado de propiedades saturadas e
insaturadas junto con el mapa topográfico se pueden usar para
estimar el factor de seguridad de las pendientes dentro de la zona de
estudio.
Bibliography
• Sánchez, J. Z. (2010). Kriging: Un método de interpolación sobre datos
dispersos. México DF.

• H. Rahardjo, A. Satyanaga, M.M. Nistor & E.C. Leong . Geospatial

distribution of unsaturated soil properties for slope stability
assessment