Development and validation of the terrain stability model for assessing landslide instability during heavy rain infiltration

Slope stability is a key topic, not only for engineers but also for politicians, due to the considerable monetary and human losses that landslides can cause every year. In fact, it is estimated that landslides have caused thousands of deaths and economic losses amounting to tens of billions of euros per year around the world. The geological stability of slopes is affected by several factors, such as climate, earthquakes, lithology and rock structures, among others. Climate is one of the main factors, especially when large amounts of rainwater are absorbed in short periods of time. Taking this issue into account, we developed an innovative analytical model using the limit equilibrium method supported by a geographic information system (GIS). This model is especially useful for predicting the risk of landslides in scenarios of heavy unpredictable rainfall. The model, hereafter named terrain stability (or TS) is a 2-D model, is programed in MATLAB and includes a steady-state hydrological term. Many variables measured in the field – topography, precipitation and type of soil – can be added, changed or updated using simple input parameters. To validate the model, we applied it to a real example – that of a landslide which resulted in human and material losses (collapse of a building) at Hundidero, La Viñuela (Málaga), Spain, in February 2010.</p

Reinforced Concrete Building with IED Detonation: Test and Simulation

There is growing concern about the possibility of a suicide bomber being immolated when the army forces or the law enforcement agencies discover the place where they prepare their material or simply find themselves inside a building. To study the possible effects that these improvised explosive devices (IEDs) would have on the structures, eight tests were carried out with various configurations of IEDs with vest bombs inside a reinforced concrete (including walls and roof) building constructed ad hoc for these tests. These vests were made with different explosives (black powder, ANFO, AN/AL, PG2). For the characterization of these tests, a high-speed camera and pressure and acceleration sensors were used. The structure behaved surprisingly well, as it withstood all the first seven detonations without apparent structural damage. In the last detonation, located on the ground and with a significant explosive charge, the structural integrity of the roof and some of the walls was compromised. The simulation of the building was carried out with the LS-DYNA software with a Lagrangian formulation for the walls, using the LBE (based on CONWEP) module for the application of the charge. Despite the difficulty of this simulation, the results obtained, in terms of applied pressures and measured accelerations, are acceptable with differences of about 20%