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Development of progressive landslide failure in cohesive materials

¹ International Landslide Centre, Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
² School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
³ Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland 21250, USA
⁴ Halcrow Group Ltd, Lyndon House, 62 Hagley Road, Birmingham B16 8PE, UK

The development of progressive failure in slopes is a poorly understood process, and relatively few advances in terms of the mechanics of the development of failure have been made since 1967. However, advances in the understanding of the development of fractures in brittle materials provide new insights into landslide mechanics. In addition, the link between the deformation mechanism and movement type allows interpretation of displacement records to determine the mechanisms acting within a slope. This paper utilizes these insights into deformation processes, combined with "reinflation" stress-path triaxial experiments, to propose a new model for the development of a progressive, first-time failure within a slope. This model is able to explain the development of failure when the factor of safety is greater than unity, the existence of "Saito" linearity (a linear trend when the reciprocal of velocity prior to failure is plotted against time) during tertiary creep, and the development of failures during periods of apparently increasing normal effective stress.

Key Words: landslides • deformation • microcracks • failure • strain

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