Role of remolding energy in the post failure movements of landslides

Studies by various researchers suggest that a knowledge about the complete stress-strain curves help in the assessment of the landslide potential of sensitive clays. The post-peak stress-stain behavior of sensitive clays particularly indicates the disintegration process in the material as well as helps in the estimation of the energy involved in the disintegration process. The energy concept is a subject of current study by several researchers working on investigation of flow slides on sensitive clays. Several terms such as degradation energy, strain energy or remolding energy have been used to indicate the energy available for disintegration of sensitive clays; this is referred to as remolding energy in this work and is simply defined as the strain energy involved in the disintegration or remolding of a material. A closer examination of the concept of remolding energy provides an understanding of the overall mechanical behavior of sensitive clays during landslides. In this paper, concept of remolding energy analytically proposed by the authors is elaborated in light of laboratory and field tests conducted to determine remolding energy of sensitive clays. Finally, an attempt is establish a correlation between the run-out distances and the remolding energy of the sensitive clays involved in a landslide event.