Date
08 May 1984, 10:15 am - 5:00 pm
Abstract
A mature clay flood bank was subjected to seepage and overtopping tests. Tides were simulated by pumping water into a sheet pile coffer dam enclosing the river ward side of a 18 m length of bank. Measurements were made of the seepage, the pore water pressure in the bank, and movements of the bank. Tides of increasing height were applied until finally the water started to flow over the top of the bank. Within a few minutes of the commencement of shallow overtopping a slip developed in the desiccated clay within the landward slope of the bank. This was rapidly followed by vertical slices being pushed off the crest and the development of a 0.76 m deep breach within a few minutes. Stability analyses incorporating strengths measured by large in-situ shear tests on the saturated fissured clay gave factors of safety close to unity when the three dimensional form of the slipped mass was taken into account.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
1st Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1984 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Marsland, A., "Controlled Breaching of a Full Scale Clay Flood Bank" (1984). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 6.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/1icchge/1icchge-theme3/6
Controlled Breaching of a Full Scale Clay Flood Bank
A mature clay flood bank was subjected to seepage and overtopping tests. Tides were simulated by pumping water into a sheet pile coffer dam enclosing the river ward side of a 18 m length of bank. Measurements were made of the seepage, the pore water pressure in the bank, and movements of the bank. Tides of increasing height were applied until finally the water started to flow over the top of the bank. Within a few minutes of the commencement of shallow overtopping a slip developed in the desiccated clay within the landward slope of the bank. This was rapidly followed by vertical slices being pushed off the crest and the development of a 0.76 m deep breach within a few minutes. Stability analyses incorporating strengths measured by large in-situ shear tests on the saturated fissured clay gave factors of safety close to unity when the three dimensional form of the slipped mass was taken into account.
