Sabatino Cuomo

Abstract:

Landslides of the flow-type are dangerous and also challenging to study [1]. A wide literature has been investigating the principal mechanisms governing each stage in which these phenomena can be ideally subdivided: namely, triggering [2], post-failure [3] and propagation [4]. However, holistic contributions and general overviews are very rare. In addition, a number of numerical methods have been issued and validated so that new chances exist to efficiently model those threats. One main limitation has been represented by the tremendous gap among those contributions based on the effective stress principle in soil mechanics and other studies conceived in fluid mechanics. The former ones have been applied to slope stability while the latter to landslide evolution, including propagation, deposition and even impact/interaction with structures and protective measurements. As emblematic cases, two classes of rainfall-induced landslides of the flow-type namely debris flows and debris avalanches could be mentioned. The principal numerical methods are reviewed for modeling the landslide initiation and propagation and are later used for analyzing a series of benchmark slopes and real case histories which are successfully simulated.

[1] Pastor, M., Blanc, T., Haddad, B., Petrone, S., Morles, M. S., Drempetic, V., Issler D., Crosta G.B., Cascini L., Sorbino G., Cuomo, S. (2014). Landslides, 11(5), 793-812.
[2] Cascini, L., Cuomo, S., Pastor, M., Sorbino, G. (2009). Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 136(1), 85-98.
[3] Cascini, L., Cuomo, S., Pastor, M., Sacco, C. (2013). Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 50(9), 924-934.
[4] Cuomo, S., Pastor, M., Cascini, L., Castorino, G. C. (2014). Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 51(11), 1318-1330.