Evaluation of the risk of marine slope instability: A pseudo-3D approach for application to large areas

Type Article
Date 2001-04
Language English
Author(s) Sultan NabilORCID, Cochonat Pierre, Bourillet Jean-FrancoisORCID, Cayocca Florence
Affiliation(s) IFREMER, Lab Environm Sedimentaires, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
Source Marine Georesources and Geotechnology (1064-119X) (Taylor & Francis), 2001-04 , Vol. 19 , N. 2 , P. 107-133
DOI 10.1080/10641190120611
WOS© Times Cited 18
Keyword(s) Shear strength, Slope stability, Safety factor, Marine sediment, Finite element, Finite difference, Failure
Abstract This article presents a methodology developed to evaluate the instability of submarine slopes that extend over a large area. Special attention was paid to (1) the complex geometry (bathymetry) and the expanse of the slope, (2) the heterogeneity of the sediment, and (3) the distribution of the pore pressure. The safety factor was considered as a spatially varying quantity. The General Formulation (GLE, Fredlund and Krahn 1977), which fully satisfies equilibrium conditions, was used for evaluating the stability of the marine slope. The submarine slope failure, which occurred on 16 October 1979 during the construction of the new Nice airport, was studied in order to test the developed model. Geotechnical parameters were taken from experimental tests carried out by IFREMER on 19 cores extracted at different depths (from 27 m to 1300 m) (Cochonat, Bourillet and Savoye, 1993; Mulder et al., 1994). Many scenarios were proposed in order to explain the cause of the Nice slope failure (Habib, 1994). In this article, two of those scenarios were tested. Simulation results are presented and discussed.
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