A coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical application for assessment of slope stability

Abstract The stability of a slope is subjected to thermal (T), hydraulic (H), and mechanical (M) loadings and their coupling effects. Modeling the coupled THM processes that occur in the slope is important for reliably assessing and predicting the slope performance and stability. Therefore, a numerical model, which can consider the full coupling among the thermal (temperature variation), hydraulic (pore water pressure), and mechanical (stress and displacement) processes, is developed in this study. The developed model is employed to analyze slope stability, and the simulated results are seen to coincide well with the results obtained by traditional limit equilibrium calculation. A comparison of the results verifies the validity of the developed model for slope stability analyses under THM coupled effects. Furthermore, the capability of the developed THM model for predicting the slope performance is validated through comparisons of three case studies in terms of both laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. A favorable agreement between the modeling results and the compared data confirms the capability of the developed model to accurately describe the behavior of a slope affected by THM coupled processes. The modeling results can also contribute to a better understanding of slope failure induced by the THM couplings.