Abstract
Abstract. In recent years, heavy rainfall conditions have caused disasters around the world. To prevent losses by floods, levees have often been constructed in inundation-prone areas. This study performed reliability analyses for the Chiuliao First Levee in southern Taiwan. The failure-related parameters were the water level, the scouring depth, and the in situ friction angle. Three major failure mechanisms were considered: the slope sliding failure of the levee and the sliding and overturning failures of the retaining wall. When the variability of the in situ friction angle and the scouring depth are considered for various flood return periods, the variations of the factor of safety for the different failure mechanisms show that the retaining wall sliding and overturning failures are more sensitive to the change of the friction angle. When the flood return period is greater than 2 years, the levee could fail with slope sliding for all values of the water level difference. The results of levee stability analysis considering the variability of different parameters could aid engineers in designing the levee cross sections, especially with potential failure mechanisms in mind.
Highlights
Taiwan is in a subtropical area, so disastrous weather conditions due to typhoons are inevitable during the summer
It has been shown that the Chiuliao First Levee could fail due to slope sliding and retaining wall sliding failure when the flood started to recede from the top of levee (Huang et al, 2014)
The particle sizes and the water levels could vary from location to location along the river, so it is necessary to consider the effects of this variability
Summary
Taiwan is in a subtropical area, so disastrous weather conditions due to typhoons are inevitable during the summer. There are several possible failure mechanisms of a levee system during floods: (1) overflowing and wave overtopping, (2) scouring of the foundation, (3) seepage/piping of the levee body, and (4) foundation sliding or slope sliding of the levee (Ojha et al, 2001; Vrijling et al, 2011; Dos Santos et al, 2011; Zhang et al, 2013). These mechanisms are influenced by the levee’s geometrical configuration, the hydraulic conditions (e.g., water level and seepage conditions), and the engineering properties of the levee backfill material and the in situ soils. Wave overtopping was considered as a dynamic failure mechanism and it is not the main focus in this study
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