Effect of Future Extreme Precipitation on Expansive Soil Embankments: Fid-Bau Portal

Effect of Future Extreme Precipitation on Expansive Soil Embankments

Kumar, Prince / Banerjee, Aritra / Chandra Congress, Surya Sarat / Puppala, Anand J.

Embankments built using high-plasticity clayey soils often demonstrate shrink-swell behavior due to changes in moisture regime due to the alternating dry-wet seasons. The increase in temperature causes excessive evaporation and drying of soil to the extent that it may induce desiccation cracks in clayey soils, whereas precipitation causes a drastic reduction in soil suction, which decreases the soil strength. Additionally, precipitation on desiccated slopes may induce shallow slope failures, which may lead to significant damages. Recent climate change observations have indicated an increase in extreme weather conditions. Therefore, it is important to study the effects of extreme weather conditions on various civil infrastructure assets including embankments. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of future extreme precipitation events on the stability of embankment slopes. The study considered historical extreme precipitation events as a baseline to quantify the effects of future extreme precipitation. For this, the historical and future precipitation data were obtained for a study area located in North Texas. Future precipitation data were obtained from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, version 5 simulations. A combination of a finite element-based software for seepage analysis and limit equilibrium-based software for slope stability analysis was used in this study. The findings of this study indicate that the future extreme precipitation may reduce the factor of safety against embankment slope stability failure in the North Texas region.