Stability Analysis of an Unsaturated Embankment Located on a Saline Loess Stratum Based on the Filter Paper Test Results

Loess is considered as one of the major problematic soils, and could easily suffer from the dispersion of clay particles if a rise in pore water salinity occurs. In some parts of the national Chabahar-Zahedan railway line, such loess with relatively high salinity has been found. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the factor of safety against instability for such a railway embankment subjected to different rainfall patterns. Rainfall infiltration, indeed, was simulated as a transient flow of water through the railway embankment. The results show that the factor of safety of the embankment decreases during the rainfall infiltration. Additionally, despite an identical total rainfall amount of the different rainfall patterns, the rainfall pattern study reveals that by increasing the rainfall duration, the minimum factor of safety of the embankment decreases

Keywords:

Soil Water Retention Curve , Salinity , Filter Paper , Slope Stability , Numerical Modeling