The rapid development of expansive soil fissures and the attenuation of strength under the action of repeated atmospheric wetting-drying cycles have a very adverse impact on the shallow stability of expansive soil slope. In this study, shear strength test and fissure observation test were performed on typical residual expansive soil specimens at various wetting-drying cycles and low stress. The results show that the shear strength index of residual expansive soil should be obtained according to the high and low stress sections, respectively. The cohesion of the three residual expansive soils decreased to a similar low value range (0~5 kN) at multiple wetting-drying cycles and low stress; the attenuation of cohesion is the main cause of shallow slope collapse. The fissure rate of the specimen surface increases with the increasing number of wetting-drying cycles, and increasing the dry density can significantly inhibit the development of fissures. The repeated wetting-drying cycles leads to the rapid development of slope fissures from the surface to the inside, destroys the internal natural structure of undisturbed expansive soil, reduces the cementation between soil particles, and leads to the decrease of soil cohesion. For slope stability analysis of residual expansive soil, the strength parameters of the specimens with multiple wetting-drying cycles and internal fissure network should be selected according to the overburden pressure of the slope sliding surface. The research results provide a theoretical basis for the stability analysis of shallow landslide of expansive soil slope and slope protection design.
In order to study the flexural performance of the combined structure of steel-pipe and steel slag powder ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC), nine round steel-pipe beams filled with steel slag powder UHPC of different types were fabricated according to the orthogonal test method with the steel pipe type, coarse aggregate content, steel fiber admixture, and curing system as parameters. The broken ring morphology, deformation characteristics, deflection distribution, and flexural bearing capacity of the steel-pipe–UHPC beams were analyzed via a pure bending test and a finite element simulation. The results show that the damage morphology of the round steel-tube–UHPC beams prepared by using steel slag powder UHPC as the inner filling material was “bow damage” under the pure bending load, and the load capacity was higher. When the cross-sectional deflection reached L/30, the external load was still not reduced, and the steel-tube–steel-slag powder-UHPC beam had a better plastic deformation capacity and a later flexural bearing capacity. The type of steel tube had a significant influence on the flexural bearing capacity of the steel-tube–UHPC beam, and the larger the diameter of the steel tube section and the thicker the tube wall, the higher its flexural bearing capacity. The calculated ultimate flexural bearing capacity by the finite element software and the test results had a stable error between 5.6% and 11.2%, which indicates that the model was reasonably established. The research results can provide a reference for the application of steel pipe UHPC engineering.