Landslide laboratory setups have been created at Amrita for cooperative use with the wireless sensor network deployment in detecting and predicting landslides. This landslide setup has two main purposes:
1. Provide a test bed for developing, testing, and calibrating the sensors and subsystems of the wireless sensor network
2. Performing geophysical tests to better understand the nature of landslides, in particular with the soil from the Landslide Wireless Sensor Network Deployment Site. This will give crucial information for assessing the risk of landslide at the deployment site, using the data transmitted from the site.
Two main lab setups, called the medium scale and large scale landslide laboratory setup, have been created for landslide modeling and simulation in the WINSOC project. The small setup served both as a simple, easy to use test setup, as well as a development model for certain aspects of the medium scale landslide setup.
The same sensors as used in the field deployment are also used in the laboratory setups, with an emphasis placed on the pore water pressure meters and dielectric moisture sensors. The sensors used in the laboratory set up collects the changing soil hydrology information at the different areas and depths in the test setup at different times. This information can then be input into the mathematical landslide simulation models for the hydrology inputs.
The experiments conducted in the laboratory set ups will provide key information regarding the behavior of the slope at Idukki under various hydrology and stability conditions and the properties of the soil at the deployment site, as well as increased understanding of how landslides occur with this soil type. Using these laboratory results, based on physical measurements in Munnar, combined with geophysical landslide thresholds derived from earlier experiments, warnings to the local inhabitants could be given via the remote warning system.
Indigenously Designed and Developed, Medium Scale Landslide Laboratory Setups.
The medium lab setup measures two meters long by one meter wide by 0.5 meters tall and holds around 0.6 meters3 of soil. It has two main modes of testing. In the first, the soil is packed into the lab setup along with the associated sensors for the experiment. Water is then added in the form of rainfall or seepage, until the slope fails (provided conditions were sufficient for slope failure). In the second type of test, the soil will be saturated to a predetermined level and the entire assembly will be slowly tilted. The angle at which the slope fails will be used to determine many characteristics of the soil at that hydrology state, such as cohesion, friction angle, and others.
Testing in the Medium Scale Landslide Laboratory Setup
Medium Scale Landslide Laboratory Setup
Partners viewing medium scale laboratory set up during WINSOC PCCM7 Internal Review Meeting
Indigenously Designed and Developed, Large Scale Laboratory Set Up for Landslide Detection
The large scale landslide laboratory setup operates in a similar manner as of medium scale laboratory set up, except on a much larger scale. This setup measures 4.6 meters long by 2.6 meters wide by 2 meters tall and is designed to hold approximately 12 cubic meters of soil. In this setup, up to 24 tonne’s of soil can be tested, at a maximum depth of up to 4 feet. Here, the soil can be tested in more lifelike conditions with an increased distance between the slip plane and the boundaries of the lab setup. Similar seepage and rainfall simulators as developed for the medium lab setup are also implemented here. There are again two modes of testing, one for static slopes in which seepage and rainfall flow is added, and the second for relatively static hydrology conditions and a variable tilt.
Large Scale Landslide Laboratory Setup
Partners near the large the large laboratory set up during WINSOC PCCM7 Internal Review Meeting
Data streaming from the laboratory set up
Partners viewing data streaming from the laboratory set up during WINSOC PCCM7 Internal Review Meeting
