Numerical modeling of earthen dam breach due to piping failure

Based on model tests of earthen dam breach due to piping failure, a numerical model was developed.A key difference from previous research is the assumption that the cross-section of the pipe channel is an arch, with a rectangle at the bottom and a semicircle at the top before the collapse of the pipe roof, rather than a rectangular or circular cross-section.A shear stress-based erosion rate formula was utilized, and the arched pipe tunnel was assumed to enlarge along its length and width until the overlying soil could no longer maintain stability.Orifice flow and open channel flow were adopted to calculate the breach flow discharge for pressure and free surface flows, respectively.The collapse of the pipe roof was determined by comparing the weight of the overlying soil and the cohesion of the soil on the two sidewalls of the pipe.After the collapse, overtopping failure dominated, and the limit equilibrium method was adopted to estimate the stability of the breach slope when the water flow overtopped.In addition, incomplete and base erosion, as well as one-and two-sided breaches were taken into account.The USDAARS-HERU model test P1, with detailed measured data, was used as a case study, and two artificially filled earthen dam failure cases were studied to verify the model.Feedback analysis demonstrates that the proposed model can provide satisfactory results for modeling the breach flow discharge and breach development process.Sensitivity analysis shows that the soil erodibility and initial piping position significantly affect the prediction of the breach flow discharge.Furthermore, a comparison with a well-known numerical model shows that the proposed model performs better than the NWS BREACH model.

Key techniques for evaluation of safety monitoring sensors in water conservancy and hydropower engineering

For the evaluation of construction quality and the verification of the design of water conservancy and hydropower engineering projects, and especially for the control of dam safety operation behavior, safety monitoring sensors are employed in a majority of engineering projects. These sensors are used to monitor the project during the dam construction and operation periods, and play an important role in reservoir safety operation and producing benefits. With the changing of operating environments and run-time of projects, there are some factors affecting the operation and management of projects, such as a certain amount of damaged sensors and instability of the measured data. Therefore, it is urgent to evaluate existing safety monitoring sensors in water conservancy and hydropower engineering projects. However, there are neither standards nor evaluation guidelines at present. Based on engineering practice, this study examined some key techniques for the evaluation of safety monitoring sensors, including the evaluation process of the safety monitoring system, on-site detection methods of two typical pieces of equipment, the differential resistor sensor and vibrating wire sensor, the on-site detection methods of communication cable faults, and a validity test of the sensor measured data. These key techniques were applied in the Xiaolangdi Water Control Project and Xiaoxi Hydropower Project. The results show that the measured data of a majority of sensors are reliable and reasonable, and can reasonably reflect the structural change behavior in the project operating process, indicating that the availabilities of the safety monitoring sensors of the two projects are high