Effect of soil hydraulic properties model on slope stability analysis based on strength reduction method

Soil hydraulic properties models which have been proposed were derived based on the empirical fitting curve such as Brooks-Corey model (BC) and Van Genuchten model (VG), or based on soil pore radius distribution such as Lognormal model (LN). Each model has different accuracy for predicting soil moisture distribution. In the analysis of rainfall-induced slope failure, the soil hydraulic properties model was needed to describe the physical phenomena of behavior characteristic of water in unsaturated soil. As moisture content has an effect on soil strength, it is vital to select the suitable soil hydraulic properties model for predicting Factor of Safety (FOS) especially in forecasting landslide hazard. In this study, a numerical model of seepage finite element analysis using BC, VG, and LN model were used and compared in order to analyze the soil moisture distribution, water movement phenomenon, and slope stability characteristic in unsaturated soil slope based on the strength reduction method (SRM). The results showed that the variations of the parameters predicting the moisture content of soil leads to differences of FOS in some cases. The parametric study showed that for the unsaturated soil condition, BC model has the greatest FOS value than the other model, while VG model has the lowest. On the other hand, the FOS of all models have the same result for the saturated condition. Other than that, it was found that the increasing of ESP value in the surface layer has significant effect in the sub-surface layer.