Local mechanisms of cohesive soil erosion

Brunier-Coulin, F. and Cuéllar, P. and Philippe, P. (2016) Local mechanisms of cohesive soil erosion. In: ICSE 2016 (8th International Conference on Scour and Erosion), 12-15 September 2016, Oxford, UK.

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Abstract

The present study provides an experimental contribution to a better understanding of erosion mechanisms, based on a parametric analysis with different model materials. Such model soils allow for a controlled variation of physical properties, as well as the particle size and shape, and even the cohesion and bonding strength which can be quantified by specific mechanical testing devices. In parallel, the soil’s resistance against erosion can also be somehow quantified by means of experimental procedures such as the JET test (Hanson and Cook 2004). The goal of the investigations presented here is to determine the soil’s mechanical properties having a strong impact on the erosion resistance, and thus being required in an efficient erosion model. The useful case where the model material is also transparent enables, with adapted optical equipment, the time-space monitoring of single soil particles during erosion and thus a local analysis of erosion and soil’s detachment. Experimentally, this condition is achieved by using an oil mixture as eroding fluid and a model soil made out of glass beads possibly bonded with a very viscous liquid, all phases having approximately the same refractive index. Coupling then this refractive index matching technique with the planar laser-induced fluorescence, as already used by Philippe & Badiane (2013), makes it possible to observe the mechanisms by which the fluid flow removes single particles from the cohesive material.

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