Data assimilation methods have been implemented on a slope stability problem, and the performance of different constitutive models and data assimilation schemes has been investigated. In the first part, a data assimilation scheme called the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is implemented using a finite element model (FEM) and its performance with different constitutive models (the Mohr-Coulomb (MC) and Hardening Soil (HS) material models) is investigated to study their effect on the parameter and the factor of safety (FoS) estimation. Measurements of horizontal displacement are assimilated. The results from a synthetic example show that the HS model can generally be used to get reliable results for parameter and FoS estimation. However, using the MC model does not always output reliable parameter and FoS estimation. In the second part, the performance of different data assimilation schemes, i.e., the EnKF and ensemble smoother with multiple data assimilation (ESMDA), is studied with the preferred constitutive material model (the HS model). The results of a synthetic case show that the EnKF results in a narrower distribution for the FoS than the ESMDA method, while the latter results in FoS estimation which is closer to the ‘truth’.@en

Different data assimilation schemes such as the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), ensemble smoother (ES) and ensemble smoother with multiple data assimilation (ESMDA) are implemented in a hydro-mechanical slope stability analysis. For a synthetic case, these schemes assimilate displacements at the crest and the slope to estimate strength and stiffness parameters. These estimated parameters are then used to estimate the system's state and factor of safety (FoS). The results show that EnKF provides an FoS estimation with a mean close to the truth and with the smallest standard deviation, with ESMDA using the largest amount of assimilation steps also providing a mean close to the truth but with less confidence. The ES and ESMDA with fewer assimilation steps underestimate the FoS approximation and have low confidence. Assimilating measurements over a longer period provides a more accurate parameter, state and FoS estimation. ES has the best computational performance, with ESMDA performing worse, with its performance dependent on the number of assimilation steps. The computational performance of the EnKF is better than ESMDA but around 50% worse than the ES. Non-linearity of the underlying problem is a key cause of the multi-step assimilation processes having a better performance.@en

A recursive ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is used as the data assimilation scheme to estimate strength and stiffness parameters simultaneously for a fully coupled hydro-mechanical slope stability analysis. Two different constitutive models are used in the hydro-mechanical model: the Mohr-Coulomb (MC) model and the Hardening Soil (HS) model. The data assimilation framework allows the investigation of the effect of constitutive behaviour on its ability to estimate the factor of safety using measurements of horizontal nodal displacement at the sloping face. In a synthetic study, close-to-failure and far-from-failure cases of prior property estimations illustrate the effect of initial material property distribution with different material models. The results show that both models provide a reliable factor of safety when the distribution of prior parameters is selected close-to-failure. However, the HS model results in the improved estimation of factor of safety for the far-from-failure case while this is not the case for the MC model. In addition, for the same level of accuracy the computational effort required for the HS model is comparatively less than for the MC model.@en

This paper investigates the settlement in a pavement due to soil liquefaction. Four 1-g shaking table tests were performed on saturated sand bed-pavement model to understand the factors affecting the liquefaction-induced settlements and their relation to the pavement thickness and width. All the tests were performed with a base acceleration of 320 gal in a laminar box. The shaking table tests revealed that the total settlement reduced with the increase in the pavement thickness. The pavement with the same thickness but different width showed that the total settlement reduced with the increase in the pavement width. The co-seismic settlement and post-seismic settlement depend upon the thickness and width of the pavement, and the maximum contribution of the sand ejecta is around 7.7% in the total settlement.@en