Abstract
Increases in seepage force reduce the effective stress of particles and result in the erosion of particles, producing heave failure and piping. Sheet piles/cutoff walls are often employed in dams to control the seepage. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics solver involving two fluid phases was developed and coupled with discrete element method software to simulate the piping process around a sheet pile/cutoff wall. Binary-sized particles were selected to study the impact of fine particles on the mechanisms of seepage. The seepage phenomenon mainly appeared among fine particles located in the downstream side, with the peak magnitudes of drag force and displacement occurring around the retaining wall. Based on the particle-scale observations, the impact of seepage produced a looser condition for the region concentrated around the retaining wall and resulted in an anisotropic condition in the soil skeleton. The results indicate that heave behavior occurs when the drag force located adjacent to the boundary on the downstream side is larger than the corresponding weight of the bulk soil.
Highlights
The ‘erosion’ behavior refers to the transport and migration of particles within water-retaining structures subjected to the impact of fluid flow
This paper illustrates a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)–discrete element method (DEM) simulation of hydraulic heave behavior subjected to seepage
This paper illustrates a CFD–DEM simulation of hydraulic heave behavior subjected to seepage impact, outlining the continuum-particle dual scale observations on the phenomenon
Summary
The ‘erosion’ behavior refers to the transport and migration of particles within water-retaining structures subjected to the impact of fluid flow. It mainly occurs within water-retaining structures, such as dams and dikes, with a change in permeability, porosity, pore pressure, shear resistance and the internal structure of the system. This would affect the internal stability of structures, threaten people’s safety and cause economic loss. This work is mainly concerned with the mechanisms of granular materials during the process of seepage failure
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