Simulating the Overtopping Failure of Homogeneous Embankment by a Double-Point Two-Phase MPM

Abstract

Embankments are usually constructed along rivers as a defense structure against flooding. Overtopping failure can cause devastating and fatal consequences to life and property of surrounding areas. This motivates researchers to study the formation, propagation, and destructive consequences of such hazards in risk analysis of hydraulic engineering. This paper reports a numerical simulation of failure processes in homogeneous embankments due to flow overtopping. The employed numerical approach is based on a double-point two-phase material point method (MPM) considering water-soil interaction and seepage effects. The simulated results are compared to available laboratory experiments in the literature. It was shown that the proposed method can predict the overtopping failure process of embankments with good accuracy. Furthermore, the effects of the cohesion, internal fiction angle, initial porosity, and maximum porosity of soil on the embankment failure are investigated.2 of 15 breach, since the real overtopping failure phenomenon is, in fact, an unsteady process involving large deformations, free-surface flows, moving boundary, and water-soil interactions. To deal with these challenges, several meshless methods, such as smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) [13,14], moving particle semi-implicit method (MPS) [15], element-free Galerkin method (EFGM) [16], and material point method (MPM) [17,18], have been developed to model large deformation problems. For examples, Gotoh et al. [19,20] modeled embankment erosion due to overflow using MPS, Li et al. [21] simulated erosion of HPTRM levee based on SPH, Zhang et al. [22] modeled failures of dike due to water level-up and rainfall using SPH, Liu et al. [23] simulated piping erosion process of dike foundation by EFGM. Nikolic et al. [24] presented a discrete beam lattice model capable of simulating localized failure in a heterogeneous fluid-saturated poro-plastic solid. Zhao and Liang [25] applied MPM to model seepage flow through embankments, Martinelli et al.[26] modeled the failure of a sand dike due to seepage flow using two-phase MPM. In this work, the MPM was employed for modeling the overtopping failure of embankments because it has several advantages over other meshless methods such as EFGM, MPS, and SPH: The boundary condition realization is as easy as in the finite element method (FEM) for the use of background mesh in MPM [27]. Time-consuming neighbor particle searching is required in SPH, MPS and EFGM, but the MPM requires only the identification of particles relative to the background mesh. The MPM also avoids the tensile instability that is evident in the SPH [27].The MPM was first proposed by Sulsky et al. [17] in 1994, which uses the Lagrangian particle and the Euler background mesh to describe large deformation problems. The particles move freely across the background mesh and carry all physical parameters such as stress, density, mass, velocity, and other historical variables. The MPM combines the advantages of the Euler method and the Lagrangian method ...

Advances in Modelling and Prediction on the Impact of Human Activities and Extreme Events on Environments

“…To address this knowledge gap, a study was published in this Special Issue where a numerical simulation was conducted to investigate the failure processes of a homogeneous embankment due to the flow overtopping [44]. The good agreement between experimental and numerical results confirmed the accuracy of the employed numerical approach based on a double-point two-phase material point method (MPM) considering the water-soil interactions and seepage effects [44]. Within the same river environment, sediment erosions can occur on the riverbed, on the side-bank of the river and even on some local areas, such as those around the piers that are built along the river to support the bridges.…”

Modelling of Flood Inundation due to Levee Breaches: Sensitivity of Flood Inundation against Breach Process Parameters

“…Such models are reported by Refs. [14,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], among others. Although physical-based breach models are the right choice from the point of view of modelling the breaching process, their applicability to real cases is limited.…”

Experimental Study on the Permeability Characteristic of Fused Quartz Sand and Mixed Oil as a Transparent Soil

“…Permeability is an essential engineering property of soil, dominating the pore water flow and affecting the soil mechanical behavior [1]. Accurate measurement of soil permeability is necessary for the design of foundation engineering, whereas the variation in soil permeability may significantly affect the behavior of a soil structure, such as the failure of an embankment [2]. Soil permeability is used to depict the pore water flow at a macro scale, while the seepage flow occurs at a micro scale.…”