Triaxial Test of Unsaturated Clay and the Engineering Application at the Naji Reservoir in Guangxi Province

Abstract

Torrential or atomized rain is one of the key factors that lead to slope deformation and failure. With rain water infiltration, the pore pressure increases and the matric suction decreases even lose, which lead to the soil shear strength sharply reduced and the slope destabilized. This paper selects the in-situ red clay of the Naji reservoir in Guangxi province as research object and investigates the stress-strain characteristics of undisturbed unsaturated red clay under different matric suction conditions by the triaxial test. The numerical verification of test results is conducted by finite element software ABAQUS, using Duncan-Chang model and Mohr-Coulomb model respectively. Comparing with the Duncan-Chang model, Mohr-Coulomb model can reflect the stress-strain behavior of red clay better. And the slope stability of the project in rainfall condition is analyzed by numerical model, which would offer references for the implementation of the revetment engineering.