Experimental investigation on breaching of embankments

Breaching of embankments has recently drawn more and more attention due to its importance in the development of early warning systems for embankment failures, in the evacuation plans of people at risk, in the design method of embankments based on a risk-approach, etc. The erosion process observed during embankment breaching tests in the...

Reliability analysis of a hydraulic fill with respect to liquefaction and breaching

A recently reclaimed site in the Port of Rotterdam will serve as location and foundation of an LNG terminal. LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) is recognized as hazardous material and underlies strict safety requirements. As part of the safety assessment of the entire installation, a specific analysis had to be carried out concerning the geotechnical...

The Causes and Mechanisms of Historical Dike Failures in the Netherlands

In a historical perspective, flood protection in the past was not given high priority - plague and periods of famine and war took precedence. Poverty and a lack of knowledge made it difficult to create safer dikes. Dike engineering did improve in Napoleonic era due to the French Central Government, but many dikes still failed. A historical...

Advances in one-dimensional numerical breach modeling of sand barriers

A hydrodynamic numerical model is formulated to describe the breach erosion process of sandy barriers. The breach flow is based on the system of unsteady shallow water equations, which is solved using a robust upwind numerical approach in conjunction with the Finite Volume Method (FVM). The hydraulic jump is considered as part of the breach flow...

Numerical modeling of wave overwash on low-crested sand barriers

For management of coastal breaching hazards it is critical to be able to assess the potential of coastal barrier breaching as a result of wave actions during storm surges (wave overwash). This phenomenon is known as the breach initiation phase; the mechanisms behind this are not very well understood. In the present study, laboratory experiments...

Numerical modelling of wave overwash at low-crested sand barriers

In overwash beaches, response of a barrier profile as a whole to storm wave attacks can be distinguished into seaward and landward parts that are associated with two respective across-shore driving processes i.e. surge erosion, and overwash. Modeling of overwash relies heavily on the specification of wave overtopping from the seaside (see...

Comparison and validation of two Dutch models of breach growth in sandy dikes

In order to develop a new philosophy of flood safety in terms of probability of a certain level, two mathematical models of breach growth in sandy dikes have become available to determine the flood discharge in case of dike failure. BREACHES 1.0, developed at Alkyon/Delft Hydraulics (Steetzel) and BRES 1.0 at Delft University of Technology ...

A field experiment on beach growth in sand-dikes

The set-up and results of a field experiment on sand-dike breach erosion are described, It is found that the breaching process for the 2.2 m high sand-dike is similar to that in Visser's (1988) laboratory experiments with a 0.6 m high sand-dike. Confrontation of Visser's (1988) breach erosion model with the field data shows reasonable agreement...