Evaluation of Rainfall Impacts on Groundwater Flow and Land Deformation in an Unsaturated Heterogeneous Slope and Slope Stability Using a Fully Coupled Hydrogeomechanical Numerical Model

A series of numerical simulations using a fully coupled hydrogeomechanical numerical model, which is named COWADE123D, is performed to analyze groundwater flow and land deformation in an unsaturated heterogeneous slope and its stability under various rainfall rates. The slope is located along a dam lake in Republic of Korea. The slope consists of the Cretaceous granodiorite and can be subdivided into the four layers such as weathered soil, weathered rock, intermediate rock, and hard rock from its ground surface due to weathering process. The numerical simulation results show that both rainfall rate and heterogeneity play important roles in controlling groundwater flow and land deformation in the unsaturated slope. The slope becomes more saturated, and thus its overall hydrogeomechanical stability deteriorates, especially in the weathered rock and weathered soil layers, as the rainfall increases up to the maximum daily rainfall rate in the return period of one year. However, the slope becomes fully saturated, and thus its hydrogeomechanical responses are almost identical under more than such a critical rainfall rate. From the viewpoint of hydrogeology, the pressure head, and hence the hydraulic head increase as the rainfall rate increases. As a result, the groundwater table rises, the unsaturated zone reduces, the seepage face expands from the slope toe toward the slope crest, and the groundwater flow velocity increases along the seepage face. Particularly, the groundwater flow velocity increases significantly in the weathered soil and weathered rock layers as the rainfall rate increases. This is because their hydraulic conductivity is relatively higher than that of the intermediate rock and hard rock layers. From the viewpoint of geomechanics, the horizontal displacement increases, while the vertical displacement decreases toward the slope toe as the rainfall rate increases. This may result from the buoyancy effect associated with the groundwater table rise as the rainfall rate increases. As a result, the overall land deformation intensifies toward the slope toe, and the unstable or potential failure zones, in which the factors of safety against shear and tension failures are less than unity, become thicker near the slope toe and propagates from the slope toe toward the slope crest. Particularly, the land deformation increases, and the slope stability decreases significantly in the weathered rock and weathered soil layers as the rainfall rate increases. This is because their deformability is relatively higher than that of the intermediate rock and hard rock layers. Therefore it may conclude that heterogeneity cannot always be ignored if it is observed in actual slope systems, and thus it must be properly considered when more rigorous predictions of groundwater flow and land deformation in a slope and its stability under various rainfall rates are to be obtained.