Creep property of soil in sliding zone of loess landslide

Soils at different depths are sampled from 11 recent or apt-to-be landslides located in Jingyang County along the Jinghe River. Considering their geological environment and irrigation conditions, triaxial creep tests and direct shear creep tests on these undisturbed soil samples separately under different stress levels and moisture contents are performed to study their creep property. The findings are as follows: the creep deformation consists of 3 stages, namely, constant speed creep, acceleration creep and creep rupture, and the period from the acceleration creep to the creep rupture is significantly short; the rupture of the soil in sliding zone is characterized by plastic destruction; the corresponding strain capacity e of the creep rupture is basically below 10%, and with the increase of the moisture content, ε of the creep rupture accordingly decreases; the results of destruction strain capacity by the direct shear creep tests under different moisture content conditions are all below 4%; and the stress-strain isochronic curves under time (t>0 min) are nearly a bunch of series of curves and exhibit a “normalization” phenomenon, demonstrating that the soil in this sliding zone has consistent creep characteristics. The intrinsic relationship between the creep property and the prediction model of slope failure is also discussed. Experimental studies and theoretical discussions are given for forecasting loess landslides.