Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Soil Properties on Levee Breach by Overtopping
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Volume 141, Issue 4
Abstract
Levee failure due to overtopping during floods is a common phenomena. An experimental study was conducted in the hydraulics laboratory, University of South Carolina, to develop an understanding of the effects of soil properties on the breaching process of earthen levees. A total of eight experiments were conducted. A new methodology to measure the subaqueous breach evolution has been developed and validated. Measurements of breach width evolution and headcut migration are shown to be related to soil properties. Inclusion of noncohesive, silt size crushed silica in the levee material (45% by weight) significantly reduced the peak discharge and breach evolution time compared to a levee constructed with sand alone. Increase in kaolin clay in the levee material led to an increase in unconfined compressive strength which in turn increased resistance to levee failure. Nondimensional equations relating the breach width evolution and headcut migration to the soil properties have been developed by performing a multivariate analysis of the experimental data.
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Acknowledgments
The writers thank the National Science Foundation for the financial support under Grant No. OISE 0730246. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the writers and do not reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 4 • April 2015
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© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 5, 2013
Accepted: Oct 2, 2014
Published online: Nov 25, 2014
Published in print: Apr 1, 2015
Discussion open until: Apr 25, 2015
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