Temporal Development of Backward Erosion Piping in a Large-Scale Experiment
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper presents a large-scale backward erosion piping experiment aimed at studying the erosion rate. This temporal aspect of piping complements previous research that focused on the critical head. To study the progression rate in realistic conditions, an experiment was carried out on a 1.8 m high levee with a cohesive blanket on a sandy foundation. The pipe was guided along a row of pore pressure transducers in order to measure its temporal development. Pipe development in space and time was successfully derived from pore pressure changes, showing an average progression rate of during the progressive erosion phase. The results show a relation between upstream gradient and progression rate. Furthermore, analysis of the eroded sand mass shows a relatively large pipe volume compared to existing lab tests, and an approximately linear relation between pipe length and volume. The results and insights from this study can be used to validate and improve transient piping models, leading to more accurate dam and levee safety assessments.
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Data Availability Statement
All data and code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Acknowledgments
This work is part of the Perspectief research programme All-Risk with Project No. P15-21D, which is (partly) financed by NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences. Levee construction was funded by NWO TTW Grant No. 13861 (SAFElevee) and JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 17H04936. The authors thank Deltares for the provision of equipment and input on the setup, Myron van Damme, Junji Yagisawa, Madelief Doeleman, Mark van der Krogt, Wouter Jan Klerk and all assistants for their support in organizing the experiment. The valuable comments from two anonymous reviewers and the editor greatly improved this paper.
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 2 • February 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 13, 2019
Accepted: Jul 27, 2020
Published online: Dec 4, 2020
Published in print: Feb 1, 2021
Discussion open until: May 4, 2021
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