Experimental bench for study of internal erosion in cohesionless soils

Didier Marot (1) , Yacine Sail (1) , Alain Alexis (1)

1 GeM - Institut de Recherche en Génie Civil et Mécanique

Under the internal flow , hydraulic earth structures (dikes, levees, or dams) can incur a migration of particles that can induce a modification of hydraulic and mechanic characteristics. With the objective to characterize this phenomenon named internal erosion and its consequences on mechanical behaviour of granular materials, a large oedopermeameter device is developed. An axial load is applied on specimen and also a downward flow with a constant hydraulic gradient. During the testing time, the bench can measure the spatial variability of density and of interstitial pressure along the specimen. Axial deformation, injected flow and eroded mass are also measured during the testing time. Erosion of fine particles on downstream specimen part is accompanied by fine particles migration in the specimen. This migration induces a settlement and an increasing of interstitial pressure. Afterwards a localized instability appears and triggers specimen deformation.

Domaines: Mécanique [physics.med-ph]; Matériaux

Didier Marot, Yacine Sail, Alain Alexis. Experimental bench for study of internal erosion in cohesionless soils. 5th International Conference on Scour and Erosion (ISCE-5), Nov 2010, San Francisco, United States. ⟨hal-01008190⟩