Stože Landslide – A Case History

The paper describes the Stože landslide that occurred in western Slovenia in November, 2000. It presents the landslide particularities and laboratory tests results. A numerical analysis of the slope failure was performed. It indicated the important role of the ground water level, and the dependence of slope stability upon it. Special laboratory equipment, a large-scale shear cell, was constructed in order to test the landslide material and to indicate the roles of the water content and loading velocities on the residual shear strength of material. A testing method is presented. It was assumed that the behaviour of material with a grain size of 4 mm or less could indicate the general behaviour of the landslide. Taking into account the possibility of an earthquake occurring in this region, attention was paid to the behaviour of this material at very small strains, and to the effect of different water contents and densities of the material. The deformation characteristics of reconstituted samples were investigated in a resonant column test at IST, Lisbon. Showing the influence of the water content and confining stress, empirical equations defining the small strain shear modulus have been proposed for different water contents