A description of internal erosion by suffusion and induced settlements on cohesionless granular matter

Sibille, Luc; Marot, Didier; Sail, Yacine

doi:10.1007/s11440-015-0388-6

Cited by 72 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…However, one may assume that, with an increasing concentration of eroded particles in suspension, the probability for the existence of a plugging phenomenon in the pore network would also increase. In experiments under a given hydraulic gradient, a residual proportion of fines content could be observed . Therefore, in this analysis, a residual fines content was artificially given for the sake of simplicity.…”

Section: Numerical Modeling Of Internal Erosion Within a Dikementioning

confidence: 99%

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Internal erosion in dike‐on‐foundation modeled by a coupled hydromechanical approach

Yang

Yin

Laouafa

et al. 2018

Num Anal Meth Geomechanics

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Summary One of the major causes of instability in geotechnical structures such as dikes or earth dams is internal erosion, an insidious process that occurs over a long period of time. Research on this topic is still fairly new and much more needs to be understood in order to solve the problems posed by this phenomenon. This paper proposes a hydromechanical model based on porous continuous medium theory to assess how internal erosion impacts the safety of earthen structures. The saturated soil is considered as a mixture of four interacting constituents: soil skeleton, erodible fines, fluidized fine particles, and fluid. The detachment and transport of the fine particles are described by a mass exchange model between the solid and the fluid phases. An elastoplastic constitutive model for sand‐silt mixtures has been developed to monitor the effect of the evolution of both porosity and fines content induced by internal erosion upon the behavior of the soil skeleton. The model has been numerically solved with the finite element method. It has then been applied to the specific case study of a dike foundation subjected to internal erosion induced by the presence of a karstic cavity beneath the alluvium layer. The numerical results show the onset of erosion, the time‐space evolution of the eroded zone, and the hydromechanical response of the soil constituting the dike, all of which highlights the effects of the cavity location, the erosion rate, and the fines content.

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Section: Numerical Modeling Of Internal Erosion Within a Dikementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In experiments under a given hydraulic gradient, a residual proportion of fines content could be observed. 14,49 Therefore, in this analysis, a residual fines content was artificially given for the sake of simplicity. In this example, the residual fines content f c, r was fixed equal to 0.3.…”

Section: Description Of the Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internal erosion in dike‐on‐foundation modeled by a coupled hydromechanical approach

Yang

Yin

Laouafa

et al. 2018

Num Anal Meth Geomechanics

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“…The hydraulic loading process followed in the simulations immitates the experimental multi-stage procedure [29] where the hydraulic gradient is increased by steps as well as to take into account the effect of hydraulic loading history on 255 the suffusion development [24].…”

Section: Suffusion Development and Soil Deformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changes in the void 50 ratio and the hydraulic conductivity were also reported. It was found in [24] that the initial fines content and the history of the hydraulic loading play a major role in the suffusion development and an expression of the erosion rate was proposed to predict the cumulative eroded mass. Concerning the mechanical behavior, contradictory conclusions were found.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A discrete numerical model involving partial fluid-solid coupling to describe suffusion effects in soils

Hosn

Sibille

Benahmed³

et al. 2018

Computers and Geotechnics

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Suffusion, a particular case of internal erosion in soils, is a particle-scale mechanism involving the selective erosion of fine particles within the matrix of coarse particles under the effect of water seepage. Modifications in the micro-structure as a consequence of the loss of a fine fraction may affect both the hydraulic and the mechanical properties of the soil. Thus leading, in some cases, to drastic consequences. In this study, a discrete numerical model methodology is introduced to investigate the initiation and development of suffusion as well as to analyze its effects on the soil mechanical properties. For that purpose, an original numerical extraction procedure was developed allowing us to mimic the suffusion process by taking into account both the micro-structure of the granular packing and the hydraulic loading in the suffusion development. Such a procedure is based on a one-way fluid-solid coupling where the interstitial flow is solved with a finite volume approach defined at the pore scale. Numerical soil samples subjected to different hydraulic gradients show that depending on the amount and the role of eroded particles in the granular assembly, the eroded medium either shows negligible deformations during erosion but then collapses suddenly once sheared or it deforms significantly during erosion and recovers part of its strength once subjected to shear forces. A non-linear non-monotonic * R. Aboul Hosn

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“…The processes of detachment, transport and filtration of fine particles are thus inseparable. Although the suffusion development may be difficult to detect in situ, it has to be considered with attention as it can evolve towards a second phase of erosion, characterized by a blowout and an important washing out of fine particles, inducing both a large settlement of specimen and a relatively strong increase in the hydraulic conductivity (Sibille et al, 2015a). Thus to ensure the safety assessment of hydraulic earth structures, the characterization of suffusion susceptibility is required.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A possible characterization of suffusion susceptibility independent of the hydraulic loading history?

.¹,

Marot

Sibille

et al. 2016

Scour and Erosion

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Suffusion is a complex phenomenon which involves selective erosion of fine particles under the effect of seepage flow in the matrix of coarser particles. With the objective to characterize suffusion susceptibility, a series of downward seepage flow tests was realized with a triaxial erodimeter developed in our laboratory. Three different cohesionless soils were tested under controlled hydraulic gradient or under controlled flow rate. This study shows the significant effect of hydraulic loading history on the value of critical hydraulic gradient. Moreover, method characterizing the erosion susceptibility based on rate of erosion doesn't lead to a unique characterization of suffusion process for different histories of hydraulic loading. The new analysis is based on energy expended by the seepage flow to characterize the hydraulic loading and the cumulative eroded dry mass to characterize the soil response. The results demonstrate that this approach is effective to characterize suffusion susceptibility for cohesionless soils.

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A description of internal erosion by suffusion and induced settlements on cohesionless granular matter

Cited by 72 publications

References 26 publications

Internal erosion in dike‐on‐foundation modeled by a coupled hydromechanical approach

Internal erosion in dike‐on‐foundation modeled by a coupled hydromechanical approach

A discrete numerical model involving partial fluid-solid coupling to describe suffusion effects in soils

A possible characterization of suffusion susceptibility independent of the hydraulic loading history?

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