Application of the TDR technique for the detection of changes in the internal structure of an earthen flood levee

Janik, Grzegorz; Dawid, Małgorzata; Walczak, Amadeusz; Słowińska-Osypiuk, Joanna; Skierucha, Wojciech; Wilczek, Andrzej; Daniel, Anna

doi:10.1088/1742-2140/14/2/292

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Modern, developed societies are fundamentally dependent upon the performance of their geotechnical assets (e.g., embankments, cuttings, earth dams, flood levees, pavement subbase layers) to function properly; yet, many of these earth structures and the infrastructure that they support (e.g., transport infrastructure, buried pipes and cables) have been constructed decades, if not centuries, ago and as such are still being relied upon well past their design life (Glendinning et al 2015;Janik et al 2017). Replacement of these assets is often prohibitively expensive (Rosenbalm and Zapata 2017); hence, effective management strategies are required to ensure prolonged function.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Deterioration, and failure mechanisms, of ageing geotechnical infrastructure have been attributed to a number of processes often related to changes in water content (including rapiddrawdown post-flooding, shrink-swell and desiccation, internal and surface erosion, as well as changes in pore-water pressure and (or) chemistry regimes) (Clayton et al 2010;Farewell et al 2012;Rajeev et al 2012;Glendinning et al 2014;Pritchard et al 2014Pritchard et al , 2015aPritchard et al , 2015bRosenbalm and Zapata 2017;Briggs et al 2017;Janik et al 2017;Stirling et al 2017). Hence, it is clear that water content is a key parameter influencing the performance of geotechnical assets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…TDR has recently been used to monitor earth structures such as levees in controlled experiments and in real field case studies (Scheuermann et al 2009;Utili et al 2015;Janik et al 2017). Estimating the degree of saturation (S r ) would be very beneficial as this parameter is directly linked to the stability of earth structures and could be used to trigger warnings (Valentino et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Time domain reflectometry (TDR) potential for soil condition monitoring of geotechnical assets

et al. 2019

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The performance of geotechnical assets is influenced by various external factors including time and changing loading and environmental conditions. These changes could reduce the asset’s ability to maintain its function, potentially resulting in failure, which could be extremely disruptive and expensive to remediate; thus, the ability to monitor the long-term condition of the ground is clearly desirable as this could function as an early-warning system, permitting intervention prior to failure. This study demonstrates, for the first time, the potential of using time domain reflectometry (TDR) for long-term monitoring of the relative health of an asset (via water content and dry density) in a field trial where a clayey sandy silt was exposed to leaking water from a pipe. TDR sensors were able to provide detailed information on the variation in the soil conditions and detect abrupt changes that would relay a prompt for asset inspections or interventions. It is proposed that TDR could be used alone or together with other shallow geophysical techniques for long-term condition monitoring of critical geotechnical assets. Early-warning systems could be based on thresholds defined from the values or the relative change of the measured parameters.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Time domain reflectometry (TDR) potential for soil condition monitoring of geotechnical assets

et al. 2019

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“…Apart from the soil moisture content, the temperature was controlled at the depth of 5 cm under the soil surface and in the laboratory room to ensure that no problem with heating occurred. The temperature in the laboratory room oscillated between 22 and 24 • C. TDR devices used in this experiment are commonly applied to measure soil moisture content and soil temperature, and their suitability has been proven in the literature [86][87][88][89][90]. The data were recorded with the use of dedicated software delivered with the devices.…”

Section: Test Stand and Measuring Equipmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of a Water Absorbing Geocomposite on Soil Water Retention and Soil Matric Potential

Śpitalniak

Lejcuś

Dąbrowska

et al. 2019

Water

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Climate change induces droughts that are becoming more intensive and more frequent than ever before. Most of the available forecast tools predict a further significant increase in the risk of drought, which indicates the need to prepare solutions to mitigate its effects. Growing water scarcity is now one of the world’s leading challenges. In agriculture and environmental engineering, in order to increase soil water retention, soil additives are used. In this study, the influence of a newly developed water absorbing geocomposite (WAG) on soil water retention and soil matric potential was analyzed. WAG is a special element made from geotextile which is wrapped around a synthetic skeleton with a superabsorbent polymer placed inside. To describe WAG’s influence on soil water retention and soil matric potential, coarse sand, loamy sand, and sandy loam soils were used. WAG in the form of a mat was used in the study as a treatment. Three kinds of samples were prepared for every soil type. Control samples and samples with WAG treatment placed at depths of 10 cm and 20 cm were examined in a test container of 105 × 70 × 50 cm dimensions. The samples had been watered and drained, and afterwards, the soil surface was heated by lamps of 1100 W total power constantly for 72 h. Soil matric potential was measured by Irrometer field tensiometers at three depths. Soil moisture content was recorded at six depths: of 5, 9, 15, 19, 25, and 30 cm under the top of the soil surface with time-domain reflectometry (TDR) measurement devices. The values of soil moisture content and soil matric potential were collected in one-minute steps, and analyzed in 24-h-long time steps: 24, 48, and 72 h. The samples with the WAG treatment lost more water than the control samples. Similarly, lower soil matric potential was noted in the samples with the WAG than in the control samples. However, after taking into account the water retained in the WAG, it appeared that the samples with the WAG had more water easily available for plants than the control samples. It was found that the mechanism of a capillary barrier affected higher water loss from soil layers above those where the WAG had been placed. The obtained results of water loss depend on the soil type used in the profile.

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“…In the case of levee monitoring, before identifying zones of anomalous material property variations, one first needs to account for natural seasonal variations in soil temperature and moisture content (Sjodahl et al, 2009). Often, measurements are made using an in-situ probe network (Utili et al, 2015;An et al, 2017;Janik et al, 2017). However, as previously mentioned, these measurements are punctual and probe installation can lead to soil disturbance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

2D-ERT monitoring of soil moisture seasonal behaviour in a river levee: A case study

Jodry

Lopes²,

Fargier

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Geophysics

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We present a study of the seasonal behaviour of soil moisture in an old embankment levee by means of 2D DC-electrical resistivity tomography monitoring based on an embedded electrode installation. We were able to produce seasonal resistivity change models that are compensated for temperature effects using a seasonal temperature profile model. Time-lapse sections of percentage resistivity changes show spatial and temporal overall consistency with seasonal variations of soil temperature. Discrepancies are likely due to the pavement layer that is not well considered in the inversion process as well as to time-lapse inversion pitfalls. Furthermore, a detailed estimation of seasonal moisture content variations could not be given as an accurate calibration of the employed suction probes was not achievable. Nevertheless, the levee appears to have spatially consistent time variations in soil moisture, clearly influenced by both rainfall and water table and river levels. Future work on developing 3D acquisitions and adding embedded moisture content probes should prove effective to our monitoring design and give a more detailed understanding of the soil moisture seasonal behaviour in the studied stretch of levee.

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Application of the TDR technique for the detection of changes in the internal structure of an earthen flood levee

Cited by 8 publications

References 29 publications

Time domain reflectometry (TDR) potential for soil condition monitoring of geotechnical assets

Time domain reflectometry (TDR) potential for soil condition monitoring of geotechnical assets

The Influence of a Water Absorbing Geocomposite on Soil Water Retention and Soil Matric Potential

2D-ERT monitoring of soil moisture seasonal behaviour in a river levee: A case study

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