Insight into the Permeability and Microstructure Evolution Mechanism of the Sliding Zone Soil: A Case Study from the Huangtupo Landslide, Three Gorges Reservoir, China

Abstract

A large number of laboratory investigations related to the permeability have been conducted on the sliding zones. Yet little attention has been paid to the particular sliding zones of the slide-prone Badong Formation. Here, we experimentally investigate the permeability nature and the mechanism of seepage in the viscous sliding zone of the Huangtupo Landslide. Saturated seepage tests have been performed first with consideration of six dry densities and thirteen hydraulic gradients, in conjunction with the mercury intrusion porosimetry test and scanning electron microscopy test for the microstructure analysis after seepage. The results show that seepage in the sliding zone soil does not follow Darcy’s Law, since there is a threshold hydraulic gradient (i₀) below which no flow is observed and a critical hydraulic gradient (i_cr) over which the hydraulic conductivity (K) tends to be stable. The percentage of bound water could be responsible for the occurrence of i₀ and i_cr. Furthermore, pore size distributions (PSD) less than 0.6 µm and between 10 and 90 µm exhibit positive and negative correlations with the i₀, respectively, indicating that the i₀ is related to the PSD. The mechanism accounting for this result is that pore water pressure forces fine clay particles into the surrounding large pores and converts arranged particles to discretely distributed ones, thereby weakening the connectivity of pores. The seepages in the sliding zones behave differently from that in the sliding mass and sliding bed in response to the permeability.