TY - JOUR
T1 - Onset of suffusion in upward seepage under isotropic and anisotropic stress conditions
AU - Liang, Yue
AU - Yeh, Tian Chyi Jim
AU - Wang, Junjie
AU - Liu, Mingwei
AU - Zha, Yuanyuan
AU - Hao, Yonghong
N1 - Funding Information:
The first author acknowledges the financial supports from the Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers. 51409029 and 51479014], and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant number 2014M562288]. The second author acknowledges the support from the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program [grant number ER-1365]; the US Environmental Security and Technology Certification Program [grant number ER201212]; and the US National Science Foundation-Division of Earth Sciences [grant number 1014594]. The second author also acknowledges the Outstanding Oversea Professorship award through Jilin University from Department of Education, China as well as the Global Expert award through Tianjin Normal University from the Thousand Talents Plan of Tianjin City.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2019/12/2
Y1 - 2019/12/2
N2 - Suffusion is one of the mechanisms initiating internal erosion in levees and dams. To estimate the risks of seepage erosion, understanding the mechanism of suffusion under different stress conditions is crucial. With a stress-controlled apparatus, experiments are conduced, in which suffusion is induced by step-wise increasing hydraulic gradients under the isotropic and the anisotropic stress conditions. Based on the results, a low critical hydraulic gradient (LCHG) and a high critical hydraulic gradient (HCHG) are defined, corresponding to the local and the global mobilisations of fine particles, respectively. It is found that the critical hydraulic gradients under isotropic and anisotropic stress conditions are remarkably different. Under the isotropic stresses, the critical hydraulic gradients increase monotonously with the confining stress. Whereas, under the anisotropic stress conditions, the critical hydraulic gradients increase at first and then decrease after reaching a maximum value. A microscopic scale conceptual model attributes this difference to the shear stress, created by the deviatoric stresses. In the end, a formula is proposed to estimate the critical hydraulic gradients, considering the effects of the stress conditions. The accuracy of the formula is verified by comparing the experiment results and the prediction by the formula.
AB - Suffusion is one of the mechanisms initiating internal erosion in levees and dams. To estimate the risks of seepage erosion, understanding the mechanism of suffusion under different stress conditions is crucial. With a stress-controlled apparatus, experiments are conduced, in which suffusion is induced by step-wise increasing hydraulic gradients under the isotropic and the anisotropic stress conditions. Based on the results, a low critical hydraulic gradient (LCHG) and a high critical hydraulic gradient (HCHG) are defined, corresponding to the local and the global mobilisations of fine particles, respectively. It is found that the critical hydraulic gradients under isotropic and anisotropic stress conditions are remarkably different. Under the isotropic stresses, the critical hydraulic gradients increase monotonously with the confining stress. Whereas, under the anisotropic stress conditions, the critical hydraulic gradients increase at first and then decrease after reaching a maximum value. A microscopic scale conceptual model attributes this difference to the shear stress, created by the deviatoric stresses. In the end, a formula is proposed to estimate the critical hydraulic gradients, considering the effects of the stress conditions. The accuracy of the formula is verified by comparing the experiment results and the prediction by the formula.
KW - Suffusion
KW - critical hydraulic gradient
KW - laboratory experiment
KW - stress state
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85026508107&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85026508107&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/19648189.2017.1359110
DO - 10.1080/19648189.2017.1359110
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85026508107
VL - 23
SP - 1520
EP - 1534
JO - European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering
JF - European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering
SN - 1964-8189
IS - 12
ER -