Investigating climate-driven slope failure using centrifuge modelling and pore pressure analysis
Investigating climate-driven slope failure using centrifuge modelling and pore pressure analysis
This study provides new insights into rainfall- and flood-induced slope failure through high-fidelity physical centrifuge modelling combined with pore water pressure (PWP) analysis. A series of model tests was conducted under controlled seasonal climate simulations representative of UK conditions, incorporating repeated winter-type rainfall phases, summer drying periods, controlled flooding events, and gradual drawdown processes. The experimental setup featured dense arrays of high-resolution PWP sensors to capture transient hydromechanical responses across both stable and failed slope models. To reconstruct the internal pore pressure field between discrete points, the GRIDFIT method (DErrico, 2006) was implemented in MATLAB to generate continuous PWP contours. Unlike conventional interpolation techniques, GRIDFIT solves the standardised least squares problem to produce smooth, noise-tolerant surface models that preserve both spatial fidelity and the physical behaviour of geotechnical data. This enabled the precise visualisation of subsurface pressure concentrations, particularly along developing failure surfaces. The results clearly demonstrate the link between pore pressure and slope instability at failure, and they also highlight the value of combining dense instrumentation with advanced modelling tools. This work establishes a replicable framework for quantifying subsurface hydraulic conditions in physical models and offers a benchmark for assessing climate-driven slope failures with high spatial and temporal resolution.
Muna Alfergani; Elisabeth Bowman
11th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ICPMG2026)
Session 1: New facilities, new equipment, and measuring techniques
https://doi.org/10.53243/ICPMG2026-107