Monitoring Soil Slide-Flow Using Wireless Sensor Network-Inertial Measurement Unit System

It has been challenging to detect and differentiate soil slope failures involving rapid movements such as slide and flow in real-time, which result in significant losses of lives and properties. This paper presents an experimental simulation of a sand slope to evaluate the applicability of proposed wireless sensor network (WSN)-inertia measurement unit (IMU) system on characterizing and differentiating slide and flow. Each WSN-IMU sensor consists of three-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes, and five sensors were placed over the slope surface to capture local and global slope failures. A translational slide characterized is confirmed by a combination of low angular velocities within ± 10 deg/s, small changes in gravity accelerations within ± 2 m/s2, and linear accelerations in the longitudinal direction of the slope. The rapid change and intersection of gravitational accelerations at multiple timestamps and a significant increase in an angular velocity suggest a rotational movement. When the angular velocities and gravity accelerations exceed the limits for a translational slide and a significant increase in a linear acceleration of more than 1 m/s2 is experienced, a flow movement associated with the disintegration and fluidization of the slope soil is identified. The agreement on movement behaviors interpreted from the sensor readings and video observations recorded by the pi-cameras supports the application of the proposed WSN-IMU system for monitoring the rapid slide-flow. The promising results from this experimental study provide the foundation for future research and development to apply the proposed WSN-IMU system in a field for landslide monitoring and warning.