A Laboratory Investigation on Functional Parameters of Earthen Dam Breach
Journal Title: JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RESEARCH IN CONSTRUCTION AND URBAN ARCHITECTURE - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 3
Abstract
Embankment dams are constructed for retention of water for irrigation and for protecting people, land, and property from flooding. Failure of any embankment poses risk to people and property nearby. Breaching of embankments has drawn considerable attention as it provides useful information for development of early warning systems in the evacuation plans of people at risk. Many theoretical, laboratory and field studies have been carried out to study and understand the failure phenomenon. The breaches are often modeled in the shape of a trapezoid that is defined by its final height, base width or average width, and side slopes, along with time needed for the opening to form completely. Laboratory experiments were planned and conducted to obtain detailed experimental data on the breaching of homogeneous noncohesive and cohesive embankments due to overtopping. Five embankments, one constructed with pure sand, four with different sand-silt-clay mixtures were tested. The height of the embankment model was 20 cm, length of crest was 15 cm and the outer and inner slope was 1:1 (vertical: horizontal). The dam material is mainly eroded due to the transport capacity of the overtopping water. The tests confirmed that headcut erosion plays a very important role in the process of breach growth in embankments constructed with cohesive materials. Erosion usually initiates at locations close to the toe of the embankment when overflowed. Comparison of the testing durations between the ten tests indicated that the cohesive portion in the sand-silt-clay soil mixtures strongly slowed down the erosion process. Further, the higher the clay proportion in the soil mixtures was, the lower erosion rate was induced.
Authors and Affiliations
Sanjeev Kumar,
Keywords
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A Laboratory Investigation on Functional Parameters of Earthen Dam Breach
Embankment dams are constructed for retention of water for irrigation and for protecting people, land, and property from flooding. Failure of any embankment poses risk to people and property nearby. Breaching of embankme...