Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Piping
Piping
• Progressive Erosion
• Scour
Piping
• Subsurface erosion conveyed through an open “pipe” in soil under a roof of natural or manmade
materials.
• Required Conditions – Flow path/source of water – Unprotected exit – Erodible material in flow path –
Material to support a roof is present
Progressive Erosion
• Particles are removed to form a temporary void, the void grows until a roof is no longer stable and
material collapses into the void, temporarily stopping pipe development. Failure results when the
mechanism repeats itself until the core is breached or the downstream slope is over-steepened to the
point of instability.
• Typically occurs upon first filling or when reservoir reaches historic high
Scour
• Failure as the result of loss of material from an erosional surface (crack through a dam,
dam/foundation contact, downstream toe).
• Failure as the result of the “finer fraction” of a soil eroding through the “coarser fraction”.
• If suffusion occurs in a filter or transition material, the material left behind will be less compatible with
core.
• Note that these are “types” of failure modes, and definitely not sufficient to consider as “descriptions”
of failure modes
Three Groups of Failure Modes • Internal erosion (piping) through embankment • Internal erosion
(piping) from embankment into foundation
Three Groups of Failure Modes • Internal erosion (piping) through embankment • Internal erosion
(piping) from embankment into foundation • Internal erosion (piping) through foundation
Liquefication
Liquefaction takes place when loosely packed, water-logged sediments at or near the ground
surface lose their strength in response to strong ground shaking. Liquefaction occurring beneath
canals and other hydraulic structures can cause major damage during earthquakes.