Time-dependent development of Backward Erosion Piping

Structural flood protection systems such as levees are an important component in flood risk reduction strategies. Levees can fail through various failure mechanisms; this thesis focuses on the mechanism Backward Erosion Piping (BEP) which occurs when a sandy levee foundation is eroded by groundwater flow. To assess whether a levee's reliability...

Learning from Temporal and Spatial Geotechnical and Geophysical Data: (Abstract)

Modification of soil properties induced by suffusion: mechanical and X-ray tomography characterization: (Abstract)

Research needs for improved dam safety risk management of internal erosion: (Abstract)

Numerical investigation on the bimodal structure of particle packings for a widely graded soil: (Abstract)

Understanding Piping using Pore Pressure Observations: (Abstract)

Experiments to investigate the effectiveness of a new geochemical method to mitigate backward erosion piping: (Abstract)

Fine-tuning the evaluation of suffusion of silt-sand-gravel soils – a comparative study of LTU and UNSW tests: (Paper and Abstract)

Swedish embankment dams are usually constructed with core soils of glacial till. A widely graded soil sourced from moraine deposits, till comprises many fractions, from silt and sand to gravel and stones, all crushed and mixed by the action of glaciation. Interestingly, this type of soil is remarkably similar to that in other parts of the world...

Experimental assessment of hydraulic load effects on suffusion of glacial till cores: (Abstract)

Internal erosion in dams and dikes: a comparison: (Paper and Abstract)

Dams and dikes are both water-retaining earth embankments. These are vulnerable to internal erosion but specific differences lead to varying vulnerabilities to different types of internal erosion: • Dams are usually zoned, with potential filtering capability to arrest piping if it is initiated, while dikes are more commonly unzoned and incapable...

Backward erosion piping: Initiation and progression

Backward erosion piping is an internal erosion mechanism during which shallow pipes are formed in the direction opposite to the flow underneath water-retaining structures as a result of the gradual removal of sandy material by the action of water. It is an important failure mechanism in both dikes and dams where sandy layers are covered by a...

Laboratory Tests for Backwards Piping Erosion

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is conducting research to investigate internal erosion, specifically backward erosion piping, by use of laboratory-scale model testing to understand and properly capture the physics of the problem. Preliminary results show that lower void ratio models, using poorly-graded soils with a...

On reducing piping uncertainties: A Bayesian decision approach

Dikes and levees play a crucial role in flood protection in deltaic areas such as the Netherlands. Internal erosion piping or under-seepage is a major cause of levee failures and a main contributor to the probability of failure of river levees due to the large (mostly geotechnical) uncertainties. The present thesis investigates how geotechnical...