Integrating Vegetation Role in Computer Simulation for Slope Stability: The Case Study of a Railway Embankment
by Andrea Benedetto, (Associate Professor, Dept. Sciences of Civil Engineering, University Roma Tre, via Vito Volterra, 60, 00146 Rome, Italy E-mail: benedet@uniroma3.it)
Section: Geotechnics, pp. 9-14, (doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/41105(378)2)
Access full text
Purchase Subscription
Permissions for Reuse 
| Document type: |
Conference Proceeding Paper |
| Part of: |
Geoenvironmental Engineering and Geotechnics: Progress in Modeling and Applications |
| Abstract: |
The problem of slope stability has been studied for many decades, but the contribution of vegetation to stability has typically been treated empirically. In this paper we propose to include a rational model for the role of vegetation in a global computer simulation to evaluate stability. Vegetation can perform an important engineering function because of its influence on the soil, both in terms of hydrological and mechanical aspects. Here two advanced numerical models are coupled, one for the hydrological simulation of soil wetting and drying and one for geotechnical simulation of the slope stability. The simulation of a railway embankment has been carried out, and effects of different vegetation properties on stability investigated. This approach is very flexible, efficient aad effective to postulate the expected Factor of Safety of a critical slip surface. |
|
