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.

Numerical model for homogeneous cohesive dam breaching due to overtopping failure

Based on the large-scale model tests, a simplified dam breach model for homogeneous cohesive dam due to overtopping failure is put forward. The model considers headcut erosion as one of the key homogeneous cohesive dam breaching mechanisms and we calculate the time-averaged headcut migration rate using an energy-based empirical formula. A numerical method is adopted to determine the initial scour position at the downstream slope in terms of the water head and dam height, and the broad-crested weir equation is utilized to simulate the breach flow. The limit equilibrium method is used to analyze the stability of breach slope during the breach process. An iterative method is developed to simulate the coupling process of soil and water at each time step. The calculated results of three dam breach cases testify the reasonability of the model, and the sensitivity studies of soil erodibility show that sensitivity is dependent on each test case's soil conditions. In addition, three typical dam breach models, NWS BREACH, WinDAM B, and HR BREACH, are also chosen to compare with the proposed model. It is found that NWS BREACH may have large errors for cohesive dams, since it uses a noncohesive sediment transport model and does notconsider headcut erosion, WinDAM B and HR BREACH consider headcut erosion as the breaching mechanism and handle well homogeneous cohesive dam overtopping failure, but overall, the proposed model has the best performance.

Numerical simulation of seismic damage and cracking of concrete slabs of high concrete face rockfill dams

Based on the damage constitutive model for concrete, the Weibull distribution function was used to characterize the random distribution of the mechanical properties of materials by finely subdividing concrete slab elements, and a concrete random mesoscopic damage model was established. The seismic response of a 100-m high concrete face rockfill dam(CFRD), subjected to ground motion with different intensities, was simulated with the three-dimensional finite element method(FEM), with emphasis on exploration of damage and the cracking process of concrete slabs during earthquakes as well as analysis of dynamic damage and cracking characteristics during strong earthquakes. The calculated results show that the number of damaged and cracking elements on concrete slabs grows with the duration of earthquakes. With increasing earthquake intensity, the damaged zone and cracking zone on concrete slabs grow wider. During a 7.0-magnitude earthquake, the stress level of concrete slabs is low for the CFRD, and there is almost no damage or slight damage to the slabs. While during a 9.0-magnitude strong earthquake, the percentages of damaged elements and macrocracking elements continuously ascend with the duration of the earthquake, peaking at approximately 26% and 5% at the end of the earthquake, respectively. The concrete random mesoscopic damage model can depict the entire process of sprouting, growing, connecting, and expanding of cracks on a concrete slab during earthquakes.

Seismic responses of high concrete face rockfill dams:A case study

Seismic responses of the Zipingpu concrete face rockfill dam were analyzed using the finite element method. The dynamic behavior of rockfill materials was modeled with a viscoelastic model and an empirical permanent strain model. The relevant parameters were obtained either by back analysis using the field observations or by reference to parameters of similar rockfill materials. The acceleration responses of the dam,the distribution of earthquake-induced settlement, and the gap propagation under the concrete slabs caused by the settlement of the dam were analyzed and compared with site investigations or relevant studies. The mechanism of failure of horizontal construction joints was also analyzed based on numerical results and site observations. Numerical results show that the input accelerations were considerably amplified near the top of the dam, and the strong shaking resulted in considerable settlement of the rockfill materials, with a maximum value exceeding 90 cm at the crest.As a result of the settlement of rockfill materials, the third-stage concrete slabs were separated from the cushion layer. The rotation of the cantilever slabs about the contacting regions, under the combined action of gravity and seismic inertial forces, led to the failure of the construction joints and tensile cracks appeared above the construction joints. The effectiveness and limitations of the so-called equivalent linear method are also discussed.

A simplified physically-based breach model for a high concrete-faced rockfill dam:A case study

A simplified physically-based model was developed to simulate the breaching process of the Gouhou concrete-faced rockfill dam （CFRD）, which is the only breach case of a high CFRD in the world. Considering the dam height, a hydraulic method was chosen to simulate the initial scour position on the downstream slope, with the steepening of the downstream slope taken into account; a headcut erosion formula was adopted to simulate the backward erosion as well. The moment equilibrium method was utilized to calculate the ultimate length of a concrete slab under its self-weight and water loads. The calculated results of the Gouhou CFRD breach case show that the proposed model provides reasonable peak breach flow, final breach width, and failure time, with relative errors less than 15% as compared with the measured data. Sensitivity studies show that the outputs of the proposed model are more or less sensitive to different parameters. Three typical parametric models were compared with the proposed model, and the comparison demonstrates that the proposed physically-based breach model performs better and provides more detailed results than the parametric models.

Analysis of wave clipping effects of plain reservoir artificial islands based on MIKE21 SW model

Plain reservoirs are shallow, and have low dams and widespread water surfaces.Therefore, wind-wave-induced damage to the dam is one of the important factors affecting the safety of the reservoir.To improve upon unsatisfactory plain reservoir wave-clipping schemes, a numerical method is proposed to predict and analyze waves in the reservoir in the presence of artificial islands, constructed from dredged sediment.The MIKE21 SW model is applied to a specific plain reservoir for finding the optimal artificial island parameters.The simulated wave height attenuation results are seen to agree well with empirically predicted values.Thus, the validity and reliability of the numerical model are established.Artificial islands at suitable locations in the reservoir can attenuate the wave heights by approximately 10%e30%, which justifies the efficacy of the clipping scheme making use of dredging and island construction.

Effects of nonlinear strength parameters on stability of 3D soil slopes

Actual slope stability problems have three-dimensional(3D) characteristics and the soils of slopes have curved failure envelopes. This incorporates a power-law nonlinear failure criterion into the kinematic approach of limit analysis to conduct the evaluation of the stability of 3D slopes. A tangential technique is adopted to simplify the nonlinear failure criterion in the form of equivalent Mohr-Coulomb strength parameters. A class of 3D admissible rotational failure mechanisms is selected for soil slopes including three types of failure mechanisms: face failure, base failure, and toe failure. The upper-bound solutions and corresponding critical slip surfaces can be obtained by an efficient optimization method. The results indicate that the nonlinear parameters have significant influences on the assessment of slope stability, especially on the type of failure mechanism. The effects of nonlinear parameters appear to be pronounced for gentle slopes constrained to a narrow width. Compared with the solutions derived from plane-strain analysis, the 3D solutions are more sensitive to the values of nonlinear parameters.

Hydrodynamic pressure on concrete face rockfill dams subjected to earthquakes

The hydrodynamic pressure is an important load on concrete face rockfill dams (CFRDs) subjected to earthquakes,the influence of which,however,is not clear as compared with that in concrete dams.In this paper,the coupling effect between the CFRDs and the reservoir water is studied based on two-dimensional finite element simulations by using a verified procedure.It is found that neglecting the solid-fluid coupling effect not only results in an overestimation of the acceleration response within the rockfill materials but also makes an overestimation of the dynamical stresses in the concrete slabs.For a reliable seismic response analysis of the CFRDs,therefore,the hydrodynamic pressure should be taken into account,particularly when the dam is subjected to a simultaneous excitation in both horizontal and vertical directions.Numerical results show,however,that the compressibility of the water can be safely neglected in the seismic response analyses of the CFRDs even when the dam is as high as 300 m,except when the excitation is quite abundant in high frequency contents.

用于降低网格穿越误差的对流粒子高斯积分插值法

对流粒子域插值法(CPDI)是物质点法(MPM)的一种改进算法,能够抑制粒子跨越网格引起的数值噪声.然而,在大变形情况下,CPDI仍无法保证预期的收敛率.因此,本文提出了一种新方法,称为对流粒子高斯积分插值法(CPGI).通过高斯积分极大地提高了计算精度,并为扩展到三维计算提供了便捷路径.CPGI将粒子域视为多个独立的角点组成,利用高斯积分推导出粒子到网格节点的插值方程.通过三个数值基准算例:轴向振动、广义涡流和三维碰撞,证明了CPGI算法在粒子穿越网格的过程中有效地减少了数值噪声.此外,通过比较不同初始构型和派生物质点法,对CPGI的综合运算能力进行了评估.从结果来看,本算法在精度方面具有明显的优势,并能有效地降低计算成本.

A generalized plasticity model for the stress-strain and creep behavior of rockfill materials

The generalized plasticity constitutive equations that simulate, in a unified manner, the stress-strain response and the creep behavior of rockfill materials are derived using the concept of elastoplasticity. A single yield surface is assumed to capture the onset of plastic strains with, however, two separate potential functions for the stress-induced plastic strains and the creep strains,respectively. The involved tensors and scalars are then specified directly, following the generalized plasticity method, to substantiate the constitutive equations. The model thus obtained is verified using triaxial compression experiments, true triaxial experiments and triaxial creep experiments. The effectiveness of the model is also demonstrated by a successful application in studying the behavior of a high concrete face rockfill dam(CFRD). It is found that for a high CFRD with a long construction period, neglecting the creep of rockfill materials during construction results in an underestimation of the deformation of the dam.The deformation and stress of the concrete slabs may also be considerably underestimated.