Landslides: The deduction of strength parameters of materials from equilibrium analysis

Abstract

Rotational landslides (slumps) varying in size can develop at different slope angles in the same type of cohesive regolith material. Therefore it is possible to set up independent equilibrium equations for these rotational slides of different size.

In this way, a good estimate of the mean strength parameters of a certain type of material can be obtained on the basis of a number of these independent equilibrium equations. This can be done by means of regression analyses and the correlation coefficients and variances give a good indication of the reliability of the estimate of the strength parameters. In this paper the strength parameters of two regolith materials on schist and claystone are determined in this way and compared with the strength parameters measured in the laboratory.