Embankment Failures during the Historic October 2015 Flood in South Carolina: Case Study
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 8
Abstract
The collection of time-sensitive data on real-life embankment failures and their analysis are essential steps to model breach processes and the consequential flood, which are of great importance for preparing emergency action plans. In this paper, data on 14 earthen embankments that failed or were damaged in the Midlands of South Carolina resulting from the historic 1,000-year storm during October 2015 are presented and analyzed. The investigation includes measurement of breach dimensions, collection of undisturbed soil samples, soil classification, embankment erodibility tests using the submerged jet erosion test (JET) method, calculation of peak discharge, estimation of maximum height of overtopping, and calculation of maximum reservoir volume behind each embankment at the time of failure. Using this information and results, single-variable and multivariable parametric breach models for the breach depth and breach width are developed and compared with selected breach models available in the literature. All the models except for one estimate the breach width satisfactorily, with the proposed single-variable equation giving a relatively better prediction. The collected data set of this study may be used by others for model verification.
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Acknowledgments
The authors express their thanks to the Office of the Vice President for Research, University of South Carolina, under South Carolina Flood Project (Grant 15520E216), and to the National Science Foundation under the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) project (Grant 0730246) and Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project (Grant 1068116) for the financial support. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The paper benefited from the helpful suggestions of the anonymous reviewers.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 8 • August 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 6, 2016
Accepted: Jan 6, 2017
Published online: Mar 29, 2017
Published in print: Aug 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Aug 29, 2017
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