A Flood Embankment Under Changing Water Level Conditions - A Comparison of a Physical and a Numerical Model

Abstract

The paper compares the results of a study on a plane physical model of a flood embankment with the outcome of a numerical modeling using the finite element method (FEM). The numerical modeling was performed with the PLAXIS software package while the empirical data were processed with the geoPIV programme. Two types of model studies were completed, consisting of alternately raising (up to complete flooding) and lowering (to complete desiccation) the water table which affected the flood embankment model. The objective of the study was to assess the applicability of the particle image velocimetry (PIV) method to analyzing deformations of a flood embankment under changeable hydrological conditions. Qualitative agreement was found between the empirical and numerical displacement fields in the body of a flood embankment.

Degradation of flood embankments – Results of observation of the destruction mechanism and comparison with a numerical model

“…The initial observation results were described earlier [2,4,6]. In most tests, during saturation of the flood embankment model, a phenomenon was observed involving the entrapment of air in areas which remained dry for a cer-tain time period, in spite of being surrounded from the outside by saturated soil.…”