Physical and mathematical modeling of erosion processes across the scales

Internal erosion is the interaction of micro-scale hydraulic and mechanic processes taking place within the soil structure leading to macro-scale damages causing failures of whole constructions. While the geometrical and hydraulic conditions on the macro-scale supporting erosion are well investigated, the processes involved in the onset and continuation of erosion, the conditions influencing its temporal evolution are not well understood. The investigation of the processes involved in internal erosion requires a bijective or one-to-one approach with simultaneously implemented physical experiments and computational modelling on both relevant scales, micro- or pore-scale and macro- or continuum-scale. The aim of this approach is to accomplish an improved understanding of the underlying physics to be able to transfer this new knowledge into computational models enabling the solving of problems on the technical scale