Internal Erosion Phenomena in Embankment Dams : Throughflow and internal erosion mechanisms

In this study, two major internal erosion initiation processes, suffusion and concentrated leak mechanisms, which lead to both defect formation in a dam’s body and its foundation and high throughflow in dams subjected to internal erosion were studied. This understanding has the potential to facilitate numerical modelling and expedite dam safety assessment studies. The throughflow properties of coarse rockfill material were studied by; analysing filed pump test data, performing extensive laboratory experiments with a large-scale apparatus and numerically simulating the three-dimensional flow through coarse rock materials, replicating the material used in the laboratory experiments. Results from the tests demonstrate that the parameters of the nonlinear momentum equation of the flow depend on the Reynolds number for pore Reynolds numbers lower than 60000. Numerical studies were also carried out to conduct numerical experiments. By applying a Lagrangian particle tracking method, a model for estimating the lengths of the flow channels in the porous media was developed. The shear forces exerted on the coarse particles in the porous media were found to be significantly dependent on the inertial forces of the flow. Suffusion and concentrated leak mechanisms were also studied by means of laboratory experiments to develop a theoretical framework for continuum-based numerical modelling. An erosion apparatus was designed and constructed with the capability of applying hydraulic and mechanical loading. Results were then used to develop constitutive laws of the soil erosion as a function of the applied hydromechanical load for both suffusion and concentrated leak mechanisms. Both the initiation and mass removal rate of were found to be dependent on the soil in-situ stresses. A three-dimensional electrical-resistivity-based tomography method was also adopted for the internal erosion apparatus and was found to be successful in visualising the porosity evolution due to suffusion.QC 20161006