Development of tools for the stability analysis of slopes with potential risk over critical infrastructures.

The main goal of this research project was the development of a tool to analyze the level of security of critical infrastructures regarding to instability of slopes near water bodies (reservoirs, seas, etc.). A pool was constructed in the Laboratory of Hydraulics of the ETSI de Caminos, Canales y Puertos of the Technical University of Madrid in order to simulate the wave train produced by a landslide in a water body at rest and its potential affection over infrastructures, as well as a sliding ramp abled to vary its slope by means of telescopic frame.

With respect to the sliding materials, different degrees of fragmentation were used to simulate different configurations inside a portion of an unstable slope. During the test campaign were measured the slide velocities in the impact with the water surface using a photographic camera able to record high velocity videos and the wave train profiles registered with partially submerged wave probes. The results of the tests were used to calibrate the numerical models developed by the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) which will allow in the future generalize these studies for real scale problems.

Participants:

This R&D project has been funded by: