In the Indian Himalaya, a 15 km stretch of the North Sikkim Highway that is exceptionally susceptible to landsliding is characterized by fine-grained, low permeability debris material. Lanta Khola is one of the major debris slides in this stretch and is active every year during the monsoons. Although the relationship between rainfall and landsliding in the area is obvious, there is no previous study of precipitation thresholds for landslide initiation. Review of available rainfall and landslide activity data for the area between 1998 and 2006 suggests that sliding cannot be modeled by typical exponential relationships between cumulative rainfall (E) and rainfall duration (D). An alternative rainfall threshold has been proposed that predicts sliding if normalized cumulative rainfall for more than 15 days exceeds 250 mm. It is suggested that when this cumulative rainfall threshold is exceeded, the debris zone in the affected stretch becomes saturated and fails, causing landsliding.
The Lanta Khola is a major landslide on the North Sikkim Highway in the Indian state of Sikkim. The abnormally low width-to-length ratio and slope instability in spite of the gentle surface slope (24°) make this slide unique. Geological, geophysical, and geotechnical studies reveal that a major Himalayan discontinuity daylights within the slide. At the contact, the schist is weathered to fine sand and silt with lower shear strength and permeability. The overlying gneiss is less weathered and exposed at the contact. Surface runoff enters the contact zone through crevices in the overlying gneiss, and debris material is extruded laterally from within this zone rendering instability, with blocks collapsing and eventually rolling down the slope after cloud bursts. Numerical modeling of the slide confirms this mechanism of instability. Diversion of runoff, plugging of crevices, and construction of pipe piles and horizontal drains are suggested as remedial measures.
This paper discusses the development of a numerical model for a braced excavation to estimate the various design parameters that significantly influence the excavation's behavior. The results of the numerical model were compared with those of a reported case study of a braced excavation in sand, and close agreement between the results was observed. The developed model is used for parametric study to show the influence of different design parameters, such as strut stiffness, wall thickness, strut arrangement and the embedded depth of the wall on strut force, maximum moment developed in the wall, maximum lateral displacement of the wall, and maximum vertical displacement of ground surface. It was found that, among all the combinations studied, a particular type of strut arrangement for a particular ratio of embedded depth and excavation depth produces the best possible result. A design guideline is also presented based on the results of this numerical study.
Kolkata, one of the oldest cities of India, is situated over the thick alluvium of the Bengal Basin, where it lies at the boundary of the zone III and zone IV of the seismic zonation map of India. An example of the study of site effects of the metropolitan Kolkata is presented based on theoretical modeling. Full synthetic strong motion waveforms have been computed using a hybrid method that combines the modal summation and finite difference techniques. The 1964 Calcutta earthquake, which was located at the southern part of Kolkata, is taken as the source region, with the focal mechanism parameters of dip = 32°, strike = 232°and rake = 56°. Four profiles are considered for the computation of the synthetic seismograms from which the maximum ground acceleration (A MAX ) is obtained. Response spectra ratios (RSR) are then computed using a bedrock reference model to estimate local amplifications effects. The A MAX varies from 0.05 to 0.17 g and the comparison of the A MAX with the different intensity scales (MM, MSK, RF and MCS) shows that the expected intensity is in the range from VII to X (MCS) for an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 at an epicentral distance of about 100 km. This theoretical result matches with the empirical (historical and recent) intensity observations in Kolkata. The RSR, as a function of frequency, reaches the largest values (largest amplification) in the frequency range from 1.0 to 2.0 Hz. The largest site amplification is observed at the top of loose soil.
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