Stability analysis of a large landslide in hydropower engineering

This paper is devoted to stability analysis of the Zheng-Gang landslide in the Gu-Shui hydropower station in China. Based on the geological field investigations, the formation processes, the deformation mechanism related to rainfalls and the instability mode are first analyzed. Large scale direct shear tests on soils in the slip zone are performed in order to characterize influences of the content of particle and water on natural shear strength. Due to the difficulty to consider the lateral constrain and curvature effects of the bottom sliding surface, different three-dimensional models are established using the limit equilibrium method and the large strain Lagrange finite difference method. The results of stability analysis are in good agreement with the field observations. It is shown that the natural landslide is in a limit state and the creep deformation along the slipping surface is the main mechanism of landslide instability under in situ conditions. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014