The Implications of Using Estimated Solar Radiation on the Derivation of Potential Evapotranspiration and Soil Moisture Deficit within an Embankment

In order to investigate the potential effects on slope stability, an assessment of soil moisture deficit was undertaken. The results indicate that numerical models using the varying estimates of ETp would likely produce different results in terms of generated suctions and suction dissipation and so undergo different magnitudes of shrink-swell cycling, in turn leading to varying rates of strain softening behaviour, differing calculated factors of safety and differing modelled time to failure.