Experimental Study on Landslides in Terraced Fields in the Chinese Loessial Region under Extreme Rainfall

• Main Authors: Yongfu Wen, Peng Gao, Xingmin Mu, Mengzhen Li, Yongjun Su, Haixing Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
• Series: Water
• Subjects: laboratory model test; extreme rainfall; rill erosion; shallow landslides; deep lip surface; safety factor
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/3/270

Due to the development of the scale of tractor-ploughed terraces, terraces have been increasing in number, while global climate change is causing frequent extreme rainfall events in the Loess Plateau, resulting in many terrace landslides. To study the mechanism and process of shallow landslides and deep slip surface of terraces induced by extreme rainfall in loess hill and gully area, we conducted a laboratory model test of a terrace under artificial rainfall and used the Swedish arc strip method. The research results are as follows. The mechanism of shallow landslides in terraces is rill erosion accelerating rainfall infiltration, suspending the slope, and increasing its bulk density. The destruction process of shallow landslides can be roughly divided into six processes, and the earth volume of the landslide is 0.24m³. The mechanism of the deep sliding surface in terraces occurs under the combined action of water erosion and gravity erosion. The soil moisture content increases, which decreases the anti-sliding moment and increases the sliding moment, and the safety factor becomes less than the allowable limit for terraces. The deep sliding deformation area of the terrace was 0 ~ 1.0 m below the slope surface, slip surface radius was 1.43 m, the slip surface angle was 92^°, and the deep sliding surface began to form earlier than terraced shallow landslides. The displacement of the characteristic points increased from the slope top, to the slope center, and to the slope foot, with maximum displacements of 40.3, 15.5, and 6.0 mm, respectively.