Slope failure in loess terrains of Northern China during spring thawing period is closely related to the freeze-thaw cycling that surface soils inevitably experienced. Field surveys were carried out on natural and artificial slopes in thirteen surveying sites located in the Northern Shaanxi, the center of Loess Plateau, covering five characteristic topographic features including tablelands, ridges, hills, gullies and valleys. Based on the scale that is involved in freeze-thaw cycling, the induced failures can be classified into three main modes, i.e., erosion, peeling and thaw collapse, depending on both high porosity and loose cementation of loess that is easily affected. Model tests on loess slopes with gradients of 53.1°, 45.0° and 33.7° were carried out to reveal the heat transfer, water migration and deformation during slope failure. The surface morphology of slopes was photographed, with flake shaped erosion and cracks noted. For three slope models, time histories for the thermal regime exhibit three obvious cycles of freeze and thaw andthe maximum frost depth develops downwards as freeze-thaw cycling proceeds. Soil water in the unfrozen domain beneath was migrated towards the slope surface, as can be noticed from the considerable change in the unfrozen water content, almost synchronous with the variation of temperature. The displacement in both vertical and horizontal directions varies over time and three obvious cycles can be traced. The residual displacement for each cycle tends to grow and the slopes with higher gradients are more sensitive to potentially sliding during freeze-thaw cycling.
XU JianWANG Zhang-quanREN Jian-weiWANG Song-heJIN Long
In order to improve the design level of partially embedded single piles under simultaneous axial and lateral loads, the differential solutions were deduced, in which the soil was treated as an ideal, elastic, homogeneous, semi-infinite isotropic medium. A comparison was made between model test results and the obtained solutions to show their validity. The calculation results indicate that the horizontal displacement and bending moment of the pile increase with increases of the axial and lateral loads. The maximum horizontal displacement and bending moment decrease by 37.9% and 13.9%, respectively, when the elastic modulus of soil increases from 4 MPa to 20 MPa. The Poisson ratio of soil plays a marginal role in pile responses. There is a critical pile length under the ground, beyond which the pile behaves as though it was infinitely long. The presented solutions can make allowance for the continuous nature of soil, and if condition permits, they can approach exact ones.
