ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Geohazards and Georisks
Experimental study on physical model for stability analysis of granite residual soil slope with boulder and dominant channel
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangzhou Polytechnic University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Guangdong University of Technology School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangzhou, China
- 3Guangzhou Vocational and Technical University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China
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Granite residual soil exhibits pronounced engineering characteristics such as strong disintegration, high porosity, and structural heterogeneity, often containing compound structures composed of boulders and dominant seepage channels. This unique configuration leads to progressive instability and failure of slopes under rainfall infiltration. To investigate this mechanism, a physical model testing system was established to analyze the stability characteristics and key influencing factors of granite residual soil slopes with boulders and dominant channels under rainfall conditions.The results show that the spatial position of boulders significantly regulates the evolution of the seepage field and the failure mode. Boulders located closer to the slope surface cause stronger local seepage deflection, concentrate the seepage path, accelerate shear zone formation, and enlarge the final landslide scale. The number of dominant seepage channels exerts a dual influence by forming rapid infiltration networks while inducing non-uniform soil saturation, resulting in a pronounced hydro-mechanical coupling effect that shortens slope stability time and increases landslide magnitude. Although both boulders and dominant seepage channels promote slope instability, their mechanisms differ: dominant channels directly enhance internal water migration through preferential flow paths, whereas boulders indirectly induce new seepage pathways by altering the existing seepage field. In addition, soil compaction plays a decisive role in controlling infiltration; higher compaction densifies the pore structure, reduces water migration, and delays saturation, thereby slowing the development of instability. Overall, this study elucidates the differential roles of boulders, dominant seepage channels, and soil compaction in rainfall-induced slope failure, providing a theoretical foundation for the prevention, control, and early warning of landslides in granite residual soil slopes.
Keywords: Boulder, Dominant seepage channel, Granite residual soil, Influence factor, Rainfall infiltration, slope
Received: 28 Oct 2025; Accepted: 29 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Xia, Zhang and Hou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lijuan Zhang
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