Study on Seepage Mechanism and Stability of Unsaturated Slope Based on Trefftz Method

Abstract

AbstractThis paper proposes a space–time Trefftz method (STM) to study the seepage mechanism and stability of unsaturated slopes. The groundwater flow under transient conditions is important in engineering practice for solving practical problems such as assessing the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. Based on the transient groundwater equation, we derived the Trefftz basis functions by splitting the variables. The solutions are approximated using Trefftz basis functions in the space–time domain. The Stabl software is subsequently employed to analyze the stability of the slope under the rainfall recharge condition with the combined reservoir water level fall. The results demonstrate that the steeper the hydraulic slope drop under combined reservoir water level fall and rainfall infiltration, the more unstable the slope becomes.