Small scale slope failure benchmark test: modelling and prediction

Abstract

A benchmark was designed with the aim of evaluating the capabilities of current modelling techniques and computational codes to reproduce slope failures. Laboratory tests and three instrumented small scale experiments of slopes initially unsaturated and subjected to a controlled rainfall up to failure were performed. The objective of the benchmark was to predict one of the slope failures knowing the rest of the data. The paper presents the modelling strategy and the results obtained using the finite element code Code_Bright and the Barcelona Basic Model as the constitutive model for the unsaturated soils.