Geotechnical evaluation of non aedificandi areas susceptible to mass movements by pressuremetric tests

Abstract

The present study investigated the susceptibilities to mass movements of slopes in areas classified as having high potential for natural accidents in Viçosa-MG-Brazil. Several stability scenarios were analyzed based on the geological-geotechnical characteristics of the terrain, considering resistance parameters and geometry for a two-dimensional analysis in the Geostudio Slope/W software. The research was based on an urban susceptibility map, which allowed the selection of areas with high potential for mass movement to carry out the PMT tests. These, in turn, subsidized the followed by numerical stability simulations to identify the degree of instability and the safety factor of the area in question. The PMT test was chosen for its speed and precision in obtaining the soil parameters in depth, which, associated with stability simulations, allowed an assessment of the slopes. In addition, scenarios were evaluated with geotechnical parameters obtained and the confidence interval was varied to increase the degree of safety of the evaluation. Finally, detailed information is provided, which can support public policies appropriate to each location, considering its geological-geotechnical peculiarities.