Cam-Clay Models Using Castem 2000^© and Plaxis^© for the Study of the Slope Stability of the “Corniche Ouest” of the Dakar Peninsula (Senegal, West Africa)

Abstract

The stability of the natural slopes of the “Corniche Ouest” of Dakar Capital was intensively researched by previous [1] in [2] and recent studies [3]. Soils near the surface consist of weathered lateritic cuirass, silt and marl that have been intensively altered and fractured. Below these altered layers are limestones that are interbedded with other thin volcanic layers. Prior to the 1950s the area had been less urbanized. In the 1950s demand for habitations and administrative offices led to the development of the area but, no drainage system was available. In 1984 the area began moving down slope toward the ocean. Rates of movement were the fastest several months after the end of the rainy season and the slowest during the dry season. In the next years the earthflow moved as much as some meters, but in the processes the expensive homes and administrative buildings built became uninhabitable. Movement was caused by a combination of wave erosion along the coast removing some the mass resisting flow, added water due to the disposal of wastes, watering of lawns, and rainfall causing the clays to expand and weaken, and by the added weight of development on top of the flow. The first investigations, due to a lack of geotechnical information describe a stable area even though it was observed cracks and failure in habitations. The main results obtained were specially obtained by analytical techniques of slices. It is well known that the mechanical response of a solid mass of soil depends primarily on the laws of behavior which were affected to him. The Cam-Clay model is used with two comparative numerical codes such as Castem 2000^©, a non commercial code and Plaxis 7.2^© so as to compare the mechanical response of the slopes. The models of Cambridge are founded as simple theory and use only some soil mechanical parameters easy to determine. The results are founded highly different from a code to another, but they attest all that the system described is non stable. Otherwise, this study has shown that Castem 2000© gives no realistic outputs as well as the soil behavior laws varies from a simple MohrCoulomb law to the softening or hardening complex laws.