Study on rainfall infiltration behavior of soil structures considering vegetation’s slope failure prevention function

In recent years, the risk of soil structure failure such as embankments has increased due to the increase in sudden heavy rainfall caused by climate change. Recently, the use of vegetation covers has been actively promoted. Vegetation cover is a method to protect slope surfaces by utilizing the slope failure prevention function of vegetation. In addition, vegetation cover is attracting attention as an effective method for environmental protection. In the past, measurements of volumetric water content during rainfall and rainwater flow over the surface without infiltrating into the embankment have been conducted on model embankments simulating vegetation covers. However, it is difficult to obtain a detailed understanding of the water content in an embankment structure only by model experiments. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to clarify the rainfall infiltration behavior of embankments simulating vegetation covers by using finite element analysis in addition to model experiments. In the model experiment, two model embankments, one with a vegetated slope and the other with a bare slope, were subjected to rainfall. The finite element analysis is conducted to obtain understandings of rainfall infiltration behavior.