Constellation, le dépôt institutionnel de l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

Résumé

Sensitive clays are heavily vulnerable to disturbance making them highly susceptible to landslides. The Eastern Canadian region of Quebec and Ontario have large deposits of such sensitive clays which pose a serious threat to life and property. The cause of these land movements and various criteria for assessing their instability are compared and assessed in this review paper based on the remoulding energy and the remoulding index, along with other in situ and mechanical properties of the soil. The energy distribution within a slope at the time of failure is used to link the remoulding energy to the nature of the material, making it an ideal tool for landslide risk assessment. A comparison of several existing methods for the determination of remoulding energy is made to understand the suitability of each method in future research. The applicability of these methods to Eastern Canadian soils are also verified. The post-peak behaviour of sensitive clays and its influence on remoulding energy is analysed and the estimation of remoulding energy through a linear post-peak approach is examined. The paper highlights the importance of remoulding energy and its accurate determination through the best fit stress–strain curve to understand retrogressive landslides in sensitive clays.