NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE WATER INFILTRATION PROCESS AND STRAIN LOCALIZATION IN PARTIALLY SATURATED SOILS NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE WATER INFILTRATION PROCESS AND STRAIN LOCALIZATION IN PARTIALLY SATURATED SOILS

Abstract

This paper presents one- and two-dimensional simulations of the water infiltration process on unsaturated soils by using a coupled infiltration-deformation model. Two examples are presented for the one-dimensional infiltration analysis. The first example simulates the infiltration process on a homogenous soil, and the second on a stratified soil composed of two different layers. For both cases, a one-meter column of soil was used to conduct a parametric study by assuming different values of rainfall intensity. It was found from this analysis that the one-dimensional infiltration process on the homogenous soil is highly dependent on the rainfall intensity (I) / permeability (k_s^W) ratio, and for the stratified soil, the infiltration process was controlled by the soil with less permeability. Finally, one example is presented to study the bi-dimensional infiltration process on a slope subjected to a high-intensity rainfall, where the localization of the failure surface is presented. The results of this analysis show the advantages of this methodology to study soil structures subjected to infiltration processes.