Engineering Geology 170 (2014) 4351

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Engineering Geology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enggeo

Development of shear deformation due to the increase of pore pressure

in a sandy model slope during rainfall
Katsuo Sasahara a,, Naoki Sakai b
a
b

Kochi University, 200 Monobeotsu, Nangoku, 783-8502 Kochi, Japan

National Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, 3-1 Tennodai, 305-0006 Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 2 April 2013
Received in revised form 30 November 2013
Accepted 16 December 2013
Available online 24 December 2013
Keywords:
Rainfall-induced landslide
Stressstrain relation
Unsaturated soil
Suction
Pore pressure

a b s t r a c t
To examine the relationship between the increase of the shear strain and the volumetric water content, the suction, and the pore pressure in a slope under rainfall, an analysis of the measurement of the soilwater and the
deformation of the sandy model slope due to rainfall inltration is conducted. At rst, the surface displacement
of the slope mostly occurs due to the increase of the pore pressure. The surface displacement increases slightly
under unsaturated conditions at rst and later increases signicantly with the increase of the pore pressure.
The surface displacement increases slightly immediately after the generation of the pore pressure at rst, and
the ratio of the increase of the surface displacement to the increase of the pore pressure subsequently grows
larger. The shear strain in the soil layer of the model slope also increases to a small amount with the increase
of the volumetric water content or the decrease of the suction in unsaturated conditions at rst and later increases signicantly with the increment of the positive pore pressure. The relationship between the shear strain
and the positive pore pressure is hyperbolic, and the maximum pore pressure is greater at a deeper layer.
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Many studies on time prediction methods for the occurrence of
landslides based on the measurement of the slope deformation have
been reported. The methods are a combination of the measurement of
the surface displacement by extensometers (e.g., Saito and Yamada,
1973), geodetic surveys, GPS (e.g., Crosta and Agliardi, 2003) and empirical formulas based on the creep theory of soil. Several of the methods
have often been adopted successfully for practical early warnings
of landslides. Moreover, a conventional tilt meter with microelectromechanical system (MEMS) (Ito and Toyosawa, 2009; Uchimura et al.,
2009; Dasenbrock et al., 2012) has recently been used to measure the
slope deformation because it is notably easy to install on the surface of
a landslide. It is expected that a combination of the measurements by
conventional tilt meters and the creep theory can be more widely used
for early warnings of landslides.
The creep theory of soil describes the timedisplacement relationship before the failure of the soil. In particular, this theory can describe
accelerative surface displacement immediately before the upset of the
slope failure such that certain formulae for predicting the time of
upset of a landslide have been established based on this theory (Saito,
1965; Saito and Yamada, 1973; Varns, 1982; Fukuzono, 1985; Voight,
1988, 1989; Crosta and Agliardi, 2003; Xiao et al., 2009; Bozzano and
Mazzanti, 2012). While these formulae could successfully predict the

Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81 88 864 5341.

E-mail address: sasahara@kochi-u.ac.jp (K. Sasahara).
0013-7952/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2013.12.005

time of upset of a landslide in certain cases, it failed to predict the

time in other cases. The reason for the unsuccessful time predictions
might be the change of the stress condition in the landslide body due
to the change in the rainfall intensity or the slope geometry, such as a
cutting slope or a lling soil. Creep theory cannot describe the deformation due to the change in the stress condition because it only describes
the timestrain relation for constant stress conditions in the soil. The
stressstrain relation is necessary to describe the upset of a landslide
due to a change in the stress condition, such as an increase in the
groundwater level due to the rainfall.
The establishment of the stressstrain relation in the slope requires
not only an examination of the stressstrain relation of the soil element
but also an observation of the deformation of the natural or articial
slope. The observation of the deformation of a model slope under articial rainfall is especially useful in the examination for rainfall-induced
landslide because the observation of the natural slope under natural
rainfall conditions rarely exhibits a large deformation immediately before the failure. Although efforts have been made to observe the deformation behavior of a model slope under rainfall (Moriwaki et al., 2004;
Ochiai et al., 2004), the stressstrain relation of the soil in the model
slope has not been examined. The stressstrain relation is necessary
for the mechanical model of the deformation behavior of the slope.
Other studies on model slopes under articial rainfall included the examination of the slope condition or the soil properties for the initiation
of failure (Wang and Sassa, 2001, 2003; Orense et al., 2004; Reid et al.,
2009), rainfall inltration and the soilwater characteristic curve of the
soil (Tami et al., 2007). Notably few studies reported the stressstrain relation of the soil in the model slope. Only Sasahara and Tsunaki (1996)

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K. Sasahara, N. Sakai / Engineering Geology 170 (2014) 4351

and Sasahara and Sakai (2011) could provide information on the

relation between the volumetric water content (hereafter V.W.C.), the
suction, the groundwater level and the shear strain in a sandy model
slope under articial rainfall. More observations of the deformation
behavior of a model slope under various slope conditions are
necessary for the establishment of the stressstrain relation in the
slope because the stress condition in the slope varies according to such
factors as the geometry and the soil properties of the slope and the
rainfall condition.
In this study, the V.W.C., the pore pressure (including suction), the
shear and the compression deformation in the sandy model slope are
monitored automatically under articial rainfall with a constant rainfall
condition. Analyses of the relation between the deformation and the
soilwater content are performed to determine a constitutive law between the deformation and the soilwater conditions during rainfall inltration in the slope. It is the basis of the time-prediction of upset of
rainfall-induced landslide to establish the stressstrain relationship of
the soil under saturated and unsaturated conditions. Because the soil
water condition in the topsoil layer of the slope under rainfall ranges
from the unsaturated condition before the generation of groundwater
to the saturated condition with the increase of groundwater level.
Here a model slope is designed for the topsoil layer of the slope because
rainfall-induced landslides frequently occur at the topsoil layer on baserock in a slope.
2. Methodology
2.1. Model slope and monitoring equipment
Fig. 1 shows the longitudinal section of the model slope and the
location of the monitoring devices. The scale in the vertical direction is
2.9 times that in the horizontal direction in Fig. 1. Photo 1 shows
the model slope. The model is 300 cm in length, 150 cm in width, and
50 cm in depth in the gravitational direction at the horizontal section;
600 cm in length, 150 cm in width, and 57.7 cm in depth at the slope

Pore pressure gauge (at the base)

Soil moisture sensor (10, 20, 30, 40, 50cm)
Tensiometer (5, 15, 25, 35, 45cm)
Moving pole of the extensometer
Shear strain gauge (4.6, 13.8, 23, 32.2, 41.4, 50.6cm)
Vertical displacement gauge (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50cm)

600

Boundary conditions

500

AB, BC: Impermeable

CD: Permeable

400
300

200
100
0

Photo 1. The model slope.

section with an inclination of 30. The model is composed of granite

soil. Physical and mechanical properties are shown in Table 1 and
grain size distribution of the soil is shown in Fig. 2. The model was
made in a steel ume. Vertical blades of 1 cm in height were located
at every 50 cm in the longitudinal direction at the base of the slope to
prevent slip between the base of the model and the ume. If the soil
layer slips on the base, the deformation in the slope cannot be measured
adequately, and thus the slip of the soil layer should be avoided. Lateral
wall of the ume is made of glass to be able to be observed at the lateral
side of model slope. The friction angle between the glass and the dry
granite soil is 23 by the measurement of the inclination of the glass
plate as the dry granite soil on the plate starts to move downward.
The surface of the slope is parallel to the base of the slope. The inclination and the thickness of the model slope are determined based on the
fact that most rainfall-induced landslides at the topsoil layer occur on
slopes of 3050 that are 0.51.5 m thick in Japan (Osanai et al.,
2009). The steel base plate of the model slope modies the impermeable surface of the base-rock beneath the topsoil. The soil is compacted
horizontally by human stamping at every 20 cm to construct the model
slope. Undisturbed soil samples were taken from the surface of the
model slope at every 50 cm, and the wet and dry unit weights of the
samples were measured. The measurements show that the value of
the void ratio ranged from 0.652 to 0.678, and the water content of
the soil layer was 3.74.4%. The base and upper boundary of the ume
were impermeable while the lower boundary was permeable. The
shear strain in the slope was measured by a shear strain gauge, which
is a series of tilt meters located vertically every 9.2 cm in depth to measure the vertical distribution of the shear strain. The shear strain is dened at the depth of the center of each tilt meter (4.6, 13.8, 23, 32.2,
41.4, and 50.6 cm). Two tilt meters were connected with a bolt and a
nut such that the meters can incline only in the slope inclination

57.7

B
D
Table 1
Physical and mechanical properties of the soil in the model slope.
50

C
Inclination 30

Horizontal section

Slope section

300

Unit: m
Fig. 1. Geometry of the model slope and the arrangement of the measurement devices.

Maximum void ratio of the soil emax

Minimum void ratio of the soil emin.
Void ratio in the model slope e
Relative density in the model slope Dr (%)
Water content in the model slope w (%)
Hydraulic conductivity ks(cm/s)
Cohesion c (kPa)
Internal friction angle (deg.)

0.947
0.619
0.6520.678
82.189.9
3.74.4
0.0368
0.0
34.9

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45

Percentage finer (%)

100
80
60
40
20
0
0.001

0.01

0.1

10

Grain size (mm)

Fig. 2. Grain size distribution of the granite soil for the model slope.

direction (Photo 2). The shear strain increment at a depth is dened

as tan(), while is the inclination increment of the tilt meter
(Figure 3). The tilt meters used for the shear strain gauges were PMPS10TX, MIDORI PRECISIONS, Inc. with a non-linearity of 0.2, which
corresponds to a value of 0.0035 for . Maximum inclination to be
measured by the tilt meter is 30. The compression strain at a depth
was measured by 2 vertical displacement gauges and dened as
shown in Fig. 4 at the depth X1.5, which is middle between depth X1
and depth X2. The vertical displacement gauge is composed of a steel
plate (Photo 3) that can move with the soil and a linear displacement
gauge, SDP-100R, TOKYO SOKKI, Inc. with an accuracy of 0.2 mm.
Steel plates are located every 10 cm in depth to measure the vertical
distribution of the compression strain. The friction between the soil
mass and the glass of the lateral wall was assumed to give no inuence
to the measurement of the shear strain gauge and vertical displacement
gauge because they were located more than 30 cm from the lateral wall
in cross-sectional direction. The surface displacement between the

: Increment of inclination angle of tilt meter

Shear strain increment = tan()
Fig. 3. A denition of the shear strain.

upper boundary of the ume and the moving pole at the surface of the
slope was measured by an extensometer. The moving pole moves in
the downward direction of the slope with the surface displacement
due to shear deformation of the model slope. Moving poles were set
at the surface of the slope at distances of 150 cm, 300 cm, and 450 cm
from the toe of the slope. The surface displacement was measured by
an angle sensor xed at the upper boundary of the ume, CPP-60,
MIDORI PRECISIONS with a non-linearity of approximately 0.1 mm.
The vertical displacement at the surface was measured by the same
gauge as the compression strain, which is composed of a steel plate
and a linear displacement gauge. The suction in the slope was measured
by a tensiometer, DIK-3023, DAIKI RIKA, Inc. with an accuracy of 1 kPa,
and the V.W.C. was measured by a soil moisture gauge, EC-10, Decagon
Devices, Inc. with an accuracy of 0.02 m3/m3. The principal of the sensor
is to measure the dielectric constant of the soil, however calibrations for
the granite soil used for the model were performed and the relations between output (mV) and V.W.C. were derived for each sensor. Tensiometers and soil moisture sensors are located every 10 cm in depth to
measure the vertical distribution of the suction and V.W.C.. The groundwater level (hereafter, G.W.L.) at the base of the slope was measured by
a water level gauge, which is TD4310, Toyota Koki, Inc. with an accuracy
of 1 cm. The water level gauges were set at the base of the model slope
at distances of 0 cm, 150 cm, 300 cm, 450 cm, and 525 cm from the toe
of the slope. Because steel wall at upstream boundary of the ume intercepts rainfall between 550 cm and 600 cm from the foot of the slope,

Depth X 1 cm

Subsidence

Depth X 2 cm

Subsidence

Compression strain
Photo 2. The shear strain gauge.

comp.

Fig. 4. A denition of the compression strain.

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K. Sasahara, N. Sakai / Engineering Geology 170 (2014) 4351

Photo 3. A measuring plate of the vertical displacement gauge.

the highest location of the water level gauge is 525 cm from the foot of
the slope.

Fig. 5. Time variation of the surface displacement, the surface vertical displacement and
the groundwater level at different distances from the toe of the model slope.

3. Experimental results
3.1. Movement of the surface and the groundwater level

2.2. Experimental conditions

To simulate the actual soilwater condition in a natural slope that
has experienced many rainfalls, 3 pre-rainfall events (PRE-1, 2, 3, in
Table 2) were conducted before the targeted rainfall event (RAIN in
Table 2). The rainfall conditions are shown in Table 2. Rainfall intensity at every rainfall event is constant to observe simple rainfall
inltration process. The experimental condition should be as simple
as possible to examine the basic mechanism of the upset of rainfallinduced landslides. The shear strain, the compression strain, the
G.W.L., the suction, and the V.W.C. in the slope were measured and
automatically recorded every 10 s. The deformation was videorecorded from the lateral side of the model slope, and no slip on the
base of the ume could be observed.
Measured data during the event RAIN was analyzed to examine
the mechanism of slope deformation under rainfall in this paper.

Table 2
Articial rainfall conditions.
Number

Intensity (mm/h)

PPRE-1
PRE-2
PRE-3
RAIN

30
30
15
30

Experiments conducted at 2009.

Duration
Oct.20
Oct.23
Oct.26
Nov.4

11:00:3614:00:00
9:34:2511:15:00
9:45:0012:42:43
11:00:0015:00:00

Fig. 5 shows time variation of the surface displacement, the vertical

displacement at the surface of the slope, and the groundwater level at
the base of the slope at distances of 150 cm, 300 cm, and 450 cm from
the toe of the slope. The groundwater level at 450 cm was zero
throughout the experiment; therefore, it is not shown in Fig. 5. The
surface displacement at 150 cm and 300 cm shows accelerative increases from 12,000 s. A remarkable increase in the surface displacement at 450 cm starts from 13,000 s, which is slightly later than the
increases at 150 cm and 300 cm. The vertical displacements at
300 cm, 150 cm, and 450 cm increase remarkably from 11,000 to
13,000 s. Because differences in the time variation of the surface
and vertical displacement at 150 cm and that at 300 cm are notably
small at the same elapsed times, it can be assumed that the shear
and the vertical deformation at any cross-section from 150 cm to
300 cm are almost same. The groundwater level at the base of the
model at 150 cm and 300 cm increases signicantly from 11,000 to
13,000 s when the surface and vertical displacements begin to show a
large increase. Thus, it can be assumed that deformation prole in the
vertical direction at any cross section is almost same from 150 cm to
300 cm and that the prole is not affected by deformation or stresses
in neighboring sections. The assumption leads to the idea that the deformations at sections between 150 cm and 300 cm are independent of
the stress at other sections and are decided only by the stress in the
section. In the sections at 150 cm and 300 cm, the surface and vertical
displacements increase remarkably with the generation of pore
pressure at the base, while they increase without the generation of
pore pressure at 450 cm.

K. Sasahara, N. Sakai / Engineering Geology 170 (2014) 4351

47

3.2. Soilwater conditions and deformation in the slope

Fig. 6 shows the time variation of the vertical distribution of the
V.W.C., the suction, the compression strain and the shear strain in the
model slope. The vertical distribution of the V.W.C., the suction, the
shear strain and the compression strain were measured at 200 cm,
250 cm, 300 cm and 350 cm from the toe of the slope. The V.W.C. at
saturation was calculated from the initial void ratio of the soil in the
model slope. Because the inclination of tilt meter at the depths of
50.6 cm increases over the capacity of the meter (30), the shear strain
at the depth of 50.6 cm is omitted from the gure. The V.W.C. at the
shallower layer starts to increase earlier than that at deeper layers.
Next, the V.W.C. in layers shallower than 30 cm ceases to increase and
remains constant, and it subsequently increases again after 11,500 s.
The V.W.C. above 30 cm exceeds the V.W.C. at saturation. It might
be due to the swelling of the soil layer above 30 cm caused by the dilation of the layer between 12,000 s to 14,000 s (see the 3rd graph in
Fig. 6). However, the V.W.C. in layers deeper than 30 cm increases
before 11,500 s and remains almost constant after that time. The suction in shallower layers also starts to decrease earlier than that in deeper
layers. The suction shallower than 25 cm remains constant after a large
decrease immediately after the start of rainfall. However, the suction

Photo 4. The shear deformation of the model slope.

deeper than 25 cm continues to decrease, while that at shallower

depths than 25 cm remains constant. The suction at all depths again
starts to decrease after 11,500 s. The nal value of the suction is
1.53.5 kPa, which indicates quasi-saturation. The compression strain
shallower than 25 cm is negative, which indicates swelling, while the
compression strain deeper than 25 cm is positive, which indicates compression. The compression strain at each depth is also small before
12,000 s, and it rapidly increases after that time point. The shear strain
at each depth is small until 12,000 s, and it shows an accelerated
increase after that time. The shear strain at the depths of 4.6 cm,
23 cm, 32.2 cm, 41.4 cm, and 50.6 cm becomes slightly positive with
the increase of the elapsed time while that at 13.8 cm becomes negative
until 12,600 s and later shows a large increase to a positive value. The
negative value at the depth of 13.8 cm may be due to the reaction of
the tilt meter at this depth against the large movement of the tilt meters
at higher or lower locations. The shear strain at all depths exhibits an
accelerated increase after 12,600 s. Maximum shear strain measured
by the tilt meters of the shear strain gauge after 4 rainfall events was
within maximum value 0.57 which corresponds to the maximum
inclination30 of the tilt meter. Fig. 5 shows that the pore pressure at
150 cm and 300 cm increases at 11,500 s, which is slightly earlier
than the start of the increase of the shear and the compressive strain.
This fact suggests that the pore pressure causes the shear and the volumetric deformation. It can be concluded that soil layer deforms remarkably after the soil layer becomes almost saturated, and the pore pressure
is generated in the soil layer.
Photo 4 shows the shear deformation of the soil layer taken
from the lateral side of the model slope. A large shear deformation is
generated near the base of the model slope, and the shear strain in the
shear zone is almost same at different depths, which indicates that a
clear slip surface is not generated in the slope.

4. Discussion
4.1. Relation between the surface and vertical displacements and the G.W.L.

Fig. 6. Time variation of the V.W.C., the suction, the compression strain and the shear strain
in the slope. V.W.C.: volumetric water content.

To derive the relationship of the shear deformation of the slope

to the increase of the pore pressure, the relationship between
the surface displacement and the G.W.L. at the base at 150 cm and
that at 300 cm from the toe of the slope are shown at Fig. 7. Fig. 7 (a)
shows the relationships from the start of the experiment to the end.
The relationship at 150 cm is almost same as that observed at 300 cm
until the surface displacement reaches at 10 cm. The surface displacement shows small progress at rst, although G.W.L. increases signicantly. Next, the ratio of the increase of the surface displacement to
the increase of the G.W.L. becomes gradually larger with the increase
of the surface displacement. The G.W.L. at 150 cm exhibits monotonic
increases until the end of the experiment. The G.W.L. at 300 cm

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K. Sasahara, N. Sakai / Engineering Geology 170 (2014) 4351

a) Whole duration of the experiment

a) Whole duration of the experiment

b) Duration just after the start of

b) Duration just after the start of

the experiment

the experiment

Fig. 7. Relation between the surface displacement and the groundwater level. (a) Whole
duration of the experiment. (b) Duration just after the start of the experiment.

Fig. 8. Relation between the surface vertical displacement and the groundwater level. (a)
Whole duration of the experiment. (b) Duration just after the start of the experiment.

increases to a maximum value and slightly decreases after the peak

value of the G.W.L with the increase of the surface displacement. The relationship can be modied by a hyperbolic curve, which is often adopted
as the stressstrain relationship of the soil (Lamb and Whitman, 1969).
Fig. 7 (b) shows the relationship in a small range of surface displacements up to 0.5 cm to examine the behavior in a small strain range.
The surface displacements at 150 cm and 300 cm proceed up to
0.1 cm at a notably small pore pressure of less than 2 cm H2O, which
can be neglected due to the measurement accuracy of the pore pressure
gauge. The surface displacement proceeds without the generation of
pore pressure in the unsaturated condition in this range. Next, the surface displacement proceeds up to 1020 cm with the increase of the
pore pressure (Fig. 7 (a)). The surface displacement in the unsaturated
condition is small, while that in the saturated condition with pore
pressure is large. The surface displacement in the unsaturated condition
might be caused by the shear deformation of the model slope due to the
decrease of suction or the increase of V.W.C.. The relation between the
shear strain and the suction, the V.W.C. should be examined to model
the surface displacement in the unsaturated condition. If the hyperbolic
relation between the surface displacement and the pore pressure can be
identied before the rainfall event, the relation might be able to be
applied to the prediction of the upset of the landslide due to rainfall
inltration. Although the relation between the surface displacement
and the pore pressure might be modeled based on the stressstrain
relation derived from shear test of the soil, the modeling of the relation
is a near future problem.
Fig. 8 shows the relation between the vertical displacement at different locations on the surface of the model slope and the G.W.L. Fig. 8(a)
shows the relationship until the end of the experiment, while Fig. 8 (b)
shows the relation up to 0.05 cm to examine the small deformation immediately after the start of the rainfall. Fig. 8 (a) shows almost the same
tendency as the relation between the surface displacement and the
G.W.L. at the distances of 150 cm and 300 cm. The vertical displacement
increases monotonically with the increase of the G.W.L., and the

increment of the vertical displacement is larger with the larger G.W.L.

at 150 cm. The vertical displacement at 300 cm increases with the increase of the G.W.L. until 4 cm and later increases at almost constant
G.W.L. thereafter. Although the relationship at 150 cm differs little
from that at 300 cm, the relation at 150 cm is almost same as that at
300 cm but is modied as a hyperbolic relation until a distance of
4 cm. The vertical displacement immediately after the start of the
rainfall increases without the generation of a G.W.L. until 0.01 cm at
150 cm and 0.035 cm at 300 cm. Similar to the relation between the
surface displacement and the G.W.L., the vertical displacement also
shows small increases in the unsaturated condition immediately after
the start of rainfall. The mechanism of the vertical displacement in the
unsaturated condition also might be caused by the deformation due to
the decrease of suction or the increase of V.W.C..

4.2. Deformation due to the variation of the pore pressure in the slope
To examine the stressstrain relation in the slope, the relation between the shear strain and the V.W.C., the shear strain and the suction,
the shear strain and the pore pressure, and the shear strain and the

Fig. 9. Relation between the shear strain and the V.W.C. V.W.C.: volumetric water content.

K. Sasahara, N. Sakai / Engineering Geology 170 (2014) 4351

49

Fig. 10. Relation between the shear strain and the suction.

stress ratio in the model slope are shown in Figs. 9, 10, 11 and
12, respectively.
The relationships between the shear strain and the V.W.C. at each
depth in the slope are shown in Fig. 9. The shear strain shows a slight
increase with a large increase of the V.W.C. at rst, and the ratio of the
shear strain increment to the V.W.C. increment later becomes large at
a certain value of the V.W.C.. For example, the critical value of the
V.W.C. at the depth of 4.6 cm is 36%. Although the critical value of
V.W.C. below 23 cm exceeds the V.W.C. at saturation, the difference between the former and the latter might be almost same with the accuracy
of the soil moisture sensor (0.02 m3/m3) thus the critical value of V.W.C.
below 23 cm can be recognized to be same with the V.W.C. at saturation. The shear strain proceeds under almost constant V.W.C. after the
critical value of the V.W.C. The arrows in the gure suggest the shear
strains at the generation of the relative pore pressure head at the depths
of 23, 32.2, and 41.4 cm. The relative pore pressure head is dened as
the difference between the G.W.L. and the vertical distance between
the depth of the tilt meter and the base of the slope and indicates the

a) Whole duration of the experiment

Fig. 12. Relation between the shear strain and the stress ratio.

pore pressure head at each depth of the slope (Fig. 13). It is understood
that the shear strain at the generation of a relative pore pressure is almost same as that at the start of the large increase of the shear strain
under a constant V.W.C. for the depth of 41.4 cm. However, the shear
strain at the generation of the pore pressure at the depth of 23 cm
and 32.2 cm does not coincide with the shear strain at the start of the
remarkable increase of the shear strain under a constant V.W.C. It
might due to the deformation with the decrease of saturation in the unsaturated condition. The relation between the shear strain and the suction is shown in Fig. 10. The shear strain proceeds with the decrease of
the suction at layers deeper than 23 cm. The ratio of the increase of
the shear strain to the decrease of the suction becomes larger with the
increase of the shear strain, and shear strain nally increases under almost constant suction, even in the deep layers. However, the shear
strain increases with a small rate from the start until 3 kPa, and the
shear strain increases remarkably with the decrease of the suction
from 3 kPa in layers shallower than 23 cm. The arrows show the shear
strain at the generation of the relative pore pressure at the depths of
23, 32.2, and 41.4 cm. The shear strains coincide with shear strains at
the start of the large increase. It is understood that shear strain increases
with a positive value of the suction, even after the generation of the relative pore pressure, and that the value of the suction after the generation of the relative pore pressure at shallower layers is slightly larger.
It suggests that the pore pressure is generated under quasi-saturated
conditions, which means that air bubbles are still included in the voids
of the soil such that the value of the suction is still positive. These examinations indicate that the shear strain increases at a small rate with the
increase of the V.W.C. or the decrease of the suction under unsaturated
conditions, while it increases at a large rate with the generation of the
pore pressure.
Because a large increase of the shear strain is suggested to be caused
by the pore pressure according to the examination above, the relationship between the shear strain and the relative pore pressure in the
slope is shown in Fig. 11. Fig. 11 (a) shows the relationship until a
large shear strain of 0.4. The shear strain at the depths of 4.6 cm and
13.8 cm is not shown in the gure because it increases without the
generation of a relative pore pressure in the unsaturated condition.

Groundwater level
Relative pore pressure
head at Depth z

Depth z

b) Duration just after the start of

Soil layer
depth

the experiment
Fig. 11. Relation between the shear strain and the relative pore pressure head. (a) Whole
duration of the experiment. (b) Duration just after the start of the experiment.

Fig. 13. A denition of a relative pore pressure head in the slope.

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K. Sasahara, N. Sakai / Engineering Geology 170 (2014) 4351

The shear strain at the depths of 23 cm, 32.2 cm, and 41.4 cm increases
without the generation of a relative pore pressure at rst and later increases with the increase of the relative pore pressure in the saturated
condition. In the saturated condition, the ratio of the shear strain increment to the relative pressure increment becomes larger as the shear
strain increases up to the maximum pore pressure. The relationship between the shear strain and the pore pressure up to the maximum pore
pressure can be modied by a hyperbolic relationship which might be
just like to the stressstrain relation of the soil (Lamb and Whitman,
1969). It is recognized that the amount of shear strain without the
generation of the relative pore pressure is larger at shallower layers
according to Fig. 11 (b), even though the maximum pore pressure in
deeper layers is larger. Thus, the shear deformation at deeper layers
depends more on the pore pressure under saturated conditions, while
that at shallower layers depend more on the increase of the V.W.C. or
the decrease of the suction under unsaturated conditions. Not only the
relation between the shear strain and the pore pressure but also the
relation between the shear strain and the suction in the slope should
be necessary to explain the fact that shear deformation of the slope
proceeds not only with the increase of pore pressure but also without
the generation of pore pressure.
Fig. 12 shows the relationship between the shear strain and the
stress ratio in the model slope. The stress ratio is dened as the ratio
of the shear stress to the effective normal stress at some depth in the
slope under direct shear conditions. The normal stress at some depth
(x) is derived from the equation below.
Z
x

x
0

d w dx:

In this equation, x is the depth in the slope, d is the dry unit weight
of the soil derived from the void ratio, w is the unit weight of water, and
is the V.W.C. measured in the slope. The shear stress at some depth
(x) is derived as
x x sin :

In this equation, is the inclination of the slope. The effective normal

stress ' (x) is derive as
0

x xpx:

the increase of the compression strain to the increase of the pore pressure becomes larger with increasing compression strain. The maximum
pore pressure at a deeper layer is larger than that at a shallower layer.
Thus, the compression at a deeper layer depends more on the increase
of the pore pressure.
From the examination above, it is made clear that shear and
compression deformation of the model slope proceeds not only with
the increase of pore pressure in the model slope but also without the
generation of the pore pressure in the model slope. The deformation
without the generation of pore pressure might be due to the decrease
of suction or the increase of V.W.C. in the model slope and relatively
smaller than the deformation with the increase of pore pressure. The
modeling of the deformation of the slope due to the rainfall inltration
needs not only the relation between the strain and the pore pressure in
the slope but also the relation between the strain and the suction, the
V.W.C. in the slope. The modeling can be applied to the time prediction
of the upset of rainfall-induced landslide with the monitoring of the
deformation and soilwater in the slope.
5. Conclusions
Monitoring of the soilwater, the shear and the compression deformation in a sandy model slope under constant rainfall intensity was
performed to examine stressstrain relation in the slope. An analysis
of the measured data led to the following conclusions.

In this equation, p(x) is the relative pore pressure at some depth x.

The stress ratio at some depth x under direct shear is dened below
from the equations above.
zx x= x

Fig. 14. Relation between the compression strain and the related pore pressure head.

Fig. 12 shows that relation between the shear strain and the stress
ratio can also be modied by a hyperbolic curve while the maximum
stress ratio at deeper layers is larger than that at shallower layers. The
latter fact is counter to the general theory that the ultimate stress ratio
of the same soil is unique. Now the reason for the fact cannot be identied. More detailed examination should be necessary. The deformation
in the unsaturated condition might give some inuence to the fact.
The relation between the shear strain and the suction, the V.W.C. should
be necessary to make the reason clear of the difference of stress ratio at
each depth.
Fig. 14 shows the relation between the compression strain and the
relative pore pressure head at some depth in the slope. The compression
strains at the depths of 4.6 cm and 13.8 cm increase without the generation of a positive pore pressure; thus, they are not shown in the gure.
The compression strain at the depth of 23 cm increases to 0.07 without
the generation of pore pressure at rst and later decreases until 0.08
with the increase of the pore pressure. The compression strain at other
depths increases with the increase of the pore pressure, and the ratio of

(1) The surface displacement increases in the unsaturated condition

up to 0.1 cm immediately after the start of the experiment while
it increases largely with the increase of the pore pressure at the
base after a displacement of 0.1 cm. The ratio of the increase of
the surface displacement to the increase of the pore pressure
increases with the increase of the surface displacement. The
relationship between the surface displacement and the pore
pressure can be expressed by a hyperbolic curve, which is often
used for the stressstrain relationship of soil.
(2) The relation between the vertical displacement and the pore
pressure at the base is almost same as that between the surface
displacement and the pore pressure at the base.
(3) The shear strain increases with the decrease of the suction before
the generation of a pore pressure at depths deeper than 23 cm,
but it increases signicantly with almost constant suction after
the generation of the pore pressure at the depth in question.
The relation between the increase of the shear strain and the increase of the V.W.C. in the slope also shows the same tendency.
(4) The shear strain at layers shallower than 23.8 cm increases without the generation of the pore pressure at those depths, but the
shear strain in deeper soil layers increases slightly without the
generation of pore pressure at rst and then increases signicantly with the increase of the pore pressure. The relationship
between the shear strain and the pore pressure can be modied
as a hyperbolic curve, and the maximum values of the pore

K. Sasahara, N. Sakai / Engineering Geology 170 (2014) 4351

pressure and the stress ratio are larger in deeper soil layers. The
relation between the compression strain and the pore pressure
is almost same as the relation between the shear strain and the
pore pressure.
(5) The modeling of the deformation of the slope due to rainfall
inltration needs not only the relation between the strain and
the pore pressure in the slope but also the relation between the
strain and the suction, the V.W.C. in the slope. The modeling
can be applied to time prediction of the upset of rainfallinduced landslide.

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