Natural dam failure in slope failure mode triggered by seepage

Jiang, Xiangang; Zhu, Zhanyuan; Chen, Huayong; Deng, Mingfeng; Niu, Zhipan; Deng, Hui‐Xiong; Zou, Zuyin

doi:10.1080/19475705.2020.1746697

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A dam is prone to slope failure due to seepage when it has steep upstream and downstream faces and suffers high pour water pressure (Costa and Shuster, 1988;Jiang et al, 2018). Distinct from the progressive process of non-cohesive natural dams (Gregoretti et al, 2010) that suffer collapse due to gradual soil particle migration (Jiang et al, 2020b), our model failure included four progressive sliding events. This is caused by the strong seepage in the homogeneous, fine-grained dam material.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most dams experienced a suite of quantitative and qualitative changes prior to failure (Wang et al, 2018). Seepage is usually observed during impounding (Jiang et al, 2020b), and seepage flow could cause a progressive variation of the internal structure of the dam, leading to dam failure (Dunning et al, 2006;Richard and Reddy, 2007;Wang et al, 2018). Many model tests (Gregoretti et al, 2010;Chen et al, 2015;Zhu et al, 2019), along with field observation (Xu et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2019) and numerical simulation (Calamak et al, 2020;Marti et al, 2020), have been used to study the seepage failure progress and mechanism of dam-breaks worldwide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Experimental Investigation on Failure Modes and Progressive Failure Process of Earthen Check Dam Triggered by Upstream Flow

Zhu

Yang

et al. 2022

Front. Earth Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The progressive failure of earthen check dams triggered by upstream flow is common in loess gullies on the Loess Plateau of China. However, studies on the formation mechanism of progressive failure are still unclear. To investigate the failure modes and progressive failure process of earthen check dams, a physical model test on an earthen dam influenced by upstream flow was conducted by monitoring and analyzing hydrologic and mechanical parameters, including water content, pore water pressure, soil stress, and displacement. The test results indicate that the progressive failure process of earthen dams is induced by seepage water discharged on the downstream slope, including slope slide and overtopping. Continuous seepage results in the occurrence of creep at the toe, gradually driving the deformation and sliding of the dam slope. The progressive failure begins in the downstream slopes, and this study focuses on analyzing the initiation mechanism of slope slide. The slope failure presents retrogressive sliding, including four repeated slip failures, and each sliding presents a long-time progressive process. This physical model test reproduces the entire life cycle of earthen check dams and reveals the traction sliding mechanism of dams, which is consistent with field observation. The aforementioned results provide an important reference for understanding the failure mechanism of earthen check dams triggered by upstream flow.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation on Failure Modes and Progressive Failure Process of Earthen Check Dam Triggered by Upstream Flow

Zhu

Yang

et al. 2022

Front. Earth Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Under the infiltration of rainfall, particles in these broadly graded or gap-graded soils may be separated from the soil structure by interstitial water flow and follow the water flow into the pores formed by the coarse matrix [4]. The process of soil fine particle migration will inevitably change the local particle size distribution of content in the soil, leading to localized changes in the hydraulic and mechanical properties of the soil within the slope [5,6] and affecting the transient stability of the slope [7]. Field-scale observations and controlled laboratory experiments suggest that rainfall infiltration prompts the movement of fine particles from the upper region's slope and surface towards its base, a process facilitated by seepage-induced internal erosion [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Li [12] studied the hydrodynamic envelope of soil erosion due to internal instability induced by seepage with reference to the theory of one-dimensional upward and downward seepage and the laboratory stress gradient paths. Jiang [5] investigated the fine particle migration in the dam and the slope failure mode and proposed a coupled model of the fine particle migration equations, the unsaturated seepage equations, and the equations for local stability analysis. Bi [13] proposed a method to characterize the variation in soil gradation during internal erosion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of Rainfall-Induced Erosion on Infiltration and Slope Stability

Cheng,

Hou,

Sun

et al. 2024

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In slopes where a mixture of coarse and fine particles is present, the infiltration of rainfall can cause the migration of fine particles. This migration alters the hydraulic properties of the soil and has implications for slope stability. In this study, the slope under investigation is a tailings dam composed of loosely consolidated soil with a wide particle size distribution. Due to rainfall infiltration, fine particles tend to migrate within the voids of the coarse particle framework, leading to changes in hydraulic properties and inducing slope instability. The classical internal erosion constitutive model, known as the Cividini and Gioda erosion criterion, is commonly used to predict the behavior and effects of fine particle erosion in geotechnical engineering. However, certain parameters in this erosion criterion equation, such as long-term density, are challenging to obtain through experiments. To investigate the coupled evolution of seepage and erosion within landfill slopes under the influence of rainfall infiltration and to understand the mechanisms of slope instability, this research assumes the erosion of fine particle suspension and adopts the Worman and Olafsdottir erosion criterion to establish a coupled model of unsaturated seepage and internal erosion. The developed model simulates the coupled response of seepage and erosion in unsaturated landfill slopes under three different rainfall intensities. It is then combined with the infinite slope model to quantitatively analyze the impact of fine particle migration on soil permeability and slope stability. The numerical simulations provide the following findings: The Worman and Olafsdottir erosion criterion, unlike the Cividini and Gioda erosion criterion, only requires the determination of the soil’s gradation curve to estimate the erosion rate. Internal erosion primarily occurs within the leading edge of moisture penetration, accelerating the advancement of the wetting front and reducing slope stability. When the rainfall intensity is lower than the saturated permeability coefficient, the influence of internal erosion can be disregarded. However, under rainfall intensities equal to or greater than the saturated permeability coefficient, considering internal erosion results in a difference in the depth of the wetting front of up to 34.2 cm after 6 h in the R2 scenario. The safety factor without considering internal erosion is 1.12, whereas considering internal erosion yields safety factors between 1.08 and 1.09. In the R3 scenario, the difference in the depth of the wetting front reaches 53.8 cm after 6 h, with a safety factor of 1.12 without considering internal erosion and safety factors between 1.06 and 1.07 when considering internal erosion.

show abstract

“…The embankment dam slope is a key component of flood control and disaster mitigation systems, and their seepage characteristics are important research topics in geotechnical and hydraulic engineering (Foster et al, 2000a;Cesali and Federico, 2019;Yang et al, 2019;Jiang et al, 2020). More specifically, leakage is a common type of damage to embankment dam slopes (Foster et al, 2000b;Chaney et al, 2000;Razavi et al, 2020a) and is usually accompanied by internal erosion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Numerical Analysis of the Leakage Characteristics of an Embankment Dam Slope With Internal Erosion

Ding

Wang

et al. 2022

Front. Earth Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Leakage is a common defect of embankment dam slopes, and is usually accompanied by internal erosion. This study establishes a mathematical two-phase seepage coupling model that explicitly considers the effects of internal erosion. With the help of finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics®, we use this model to study the characteristics of fluid seepage, the fraction of leakage volume that is made up of migrated fine particles (migrated fine particles volume fraction), porosity, permeability, and displacement in the leakage process of a three-dimensional embankment dam slope, as well as to study the influence of the water level and leakage outlet size on the aforementioned features. Our results show that water seepage velocity gradually increases with time, especially at the downstream leakage outlet. Therefore, the erosion and migration of fine particles occur primarily at the downstream leakage outlet, resulting in a significant increase in the migrated fine particles volume fraction, porosity, and permeability. In addition, the maximum migrated fine particles volume fraction, the maximum porosity, and the maximum permeability in the slope increase nonlinearly with time. Curves for maximum displacement with a strength reduction factor can be divided into three stages: the early stable stage, the midterm nonlinear growth stage (creeping state), and the later rapid growth stage (instability state). We also find that the rise of the water level promotes the erosion and migration of fine particles on the slope and that the maximum migrated fine particles volume fraction and the maximum porosity increase with the water level. The values of the strength reduction factor for the creeping state decrease as the water level rises. Furthermore, the larger the size of the downstream leakage outlet, the larger the maximum migrated fine particles volume fraction and maximum porosity. However, the relationship between maximum displacement and strength reduction factor is nearly unaffected by the size of the leakage outlet.

show abstract

Natural dam failure in slope failure mode triggered by seepage

Cited by 15 publications

References 27 publications

Experimental Investigation on Failure Modes and Progressive Failure Process of Earthen Check Dam Triggered by Upstream Flow

Experimental Investigation on Failure Modes and Progressive Failure Process of Earthen Check Dam Triggered by Upstream Flow

Numerical Simulation of Rainfall-Induced Erosion on Infiltration and Slope Stability

A Numerical Analysis of the Leakage Characteristics of an Embankment Dam Slope With Internal Erosion

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About