Forecast climate change impact on pore-water pressure regimes for the design and assessment of clay earthworks
Forecast climate change impact on pore-water pressure regimes for the design and assessment of clay earthworks
Understanding and mitigating the impact of climate change on the built environment is becoming increasingly important worldwide. Earthworks (embankments and cuttings) supporting road and rail transportation networks often have direct contact with the atmosphere and are therefore influenced by extreme weather events and seasonal weather patterns. Atmospheric wetting and drying alters pore-water pressures (PWP) within earthworks, potentially contributing to the deformation and failure of earthwork slopes. Consequently, it is essential to understand the influence of climate change on PWPs within earthwork slopes, to inform strategies for their design, assessment and maintenance. Extensive one-dimensional seepage analyses were carried out for typical railway embankments in the London area. The analyses showed that forecast hotter, drier summers will increase the water storage capacity of earthworks. This will lead to increased net infiltration in the winter months due to both a forecast increase in rainfall, and a longer time being required to saturate the soil pores and bring the water table back to the slope surface. Hence, despite the forecast increase in winter rainfall, this will not lead to higher design PWP regimes. The analyses were conducted for the London area, but the methodology and conceptual framework can be readily adapted for other locations.
climate change, cutting, embankment, pore-water pressure, slope stability
Huang, Wengui
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Loveridge, Fleur A.
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Briggs, Kevin M.
8974f7ce-2757-4481-9dbc-07510b416de4
Smethurst, Joel A.
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Saffari, Nader
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Thomson, Fiona
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Huang, Wengui
2e1c6ee2-0ab9-424d-8568-111373a6aad6
Loveridge, Fleur A.
fb5b7ad9-d1b8-40d3-894b-bccedf0e8a77
Briggs, Kevin M.
8974f7ce-2757-4481-9dbc-07510b416de4
Smethurst, Joel A.
8f30880b-af07-4cc5-a0fe-a73f3dc30ab5
Saffari, Nader
4e2e7dc9-4f2a-4ddd-b45a-f912e510f0e4
Thomson, Fiona
71bf6f85-66d8-46ed-a7f3-9b0d4ad1badd
Huang, Wengui, Loveridge, Fleur A., Briggs, Kevin M., Smethurst, Joel A., Saffari, Nader and Thomson, Fiona
(2023)
Forecast climate change impact on pore-water pressure regimes for the design and assessment of clay earthworks.
Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 57 (1), [qjegh2023-015].
(doi:10.1144/qjegh2023-015).
Abstract
Understanding and mitigating the impact of climate change on the built environment is becoming increasingly important worldwide. Earthworks (embankments and cuttings) supporting road and rail transportation networks often have direct contact with the atmosphere and are therefore influenced by extreme weather events and seasonal weather patterns. Atmospheric wetting and drying alters pore-water pressures (PWP) within earthworks, potentially contributing to the deformation and failure of earthwork slopes. Consequently, it is essential to understand the influence of climate change on PWPs within earthwork slopes, to inform strategies for their design, assessment and maintenance. Extensive one-dimensional seepage analyses were carried out for typical railway embankments in the London area. The analyses showed that forecast hotter, drier summers will increase the water storage capacity of earthworks. This will lead to increased net infiltration in the winter months due to both a forecast increase in rainfall, and a longer time being required to saturate the soil pores and bring the water table back to the slope surface. Hence, despite the forecast increase in winter rainfall, this will not lead to higher design PWP regimes. The analyses were conducted for the London area, but the methodology and conceptual framework can be readily adapted for other locations.
Text
Huang et al (2023) Forecast climate change impact QJEGH
- Accepted Manuscript
Text
qjegh2023-015
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 25 September 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 29 September 2023
Additional Information:
Funding information: The authors are grateful for the financial support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the programme Grant ACHILLES (EP/R034575/1). Kevin Briggs is supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering and HS2 Ltd under the Senior Research Fellowship scheme. The authors would like to acknowledge assistance from Chris Kilsby and thank Dr David Hughes and Prof Roger Moore for reviewing and providing constructive comments to this paper.
Keywords:
climate change, cutting, embankment, pore-water pressure, slope stability
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 483376
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/483376
ISSN: 1470-9236
PURE UUID: 5a89c504-a336-42f6-bf83-e3cc0f52fe6f
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Date deposited: 30 Oct 2023 12:15
Last modified: 12 Aug 2024 01:36
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Contributors
Author:
Wengui Huang
Author:
Kevin M. Briggs
Author:
Nader Saffari
Author:
Fiona Thomson
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