Changes in soil deformation and shear strength by internal erosion

Chen, C. and Zhang, L. and Chang, D. (2016) Changes in soil deformation and shear strength by internal erosion. In: ICSE 2016 (8th International Conference on Scour and Erosion), 12-15 September 2016, Oxford, UK.

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Abstract

Internal erosion is a major cause for failures and incidents in slopes, embankment dams, landslide dams and dikes. After the loss of some fine particles, the microstructure and mechanical behaviour of the soil change. In this study, a series of tests was conducted on a gap-graded soil using salt to replace part of soil particles to investigate soil deformations and shear strength changes caused by the loss of a predefined amount of fine particles. The dissolution of predefined amounts of salt in the soil specimen during saturation process successfully simulated different degrees of erosion. Drained triaxial compression tests were performed on the samples already subject to internal erosion to study the changes in the mechanical behaviour of the soil. After loss of a significant amount of fine particles, the void ratio became larger, the critical state line rose substantially, the soil behaviour became less dilative, and the shear strength decreased significantly.

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