Abstract
The failure of earth dams is mainly caused due to internal erosion and piping phenomena. Concentrated leak erosion, one of the mechanisms to trigger internal erosion, is driven by flow in the cracks or other openings. In the present study, an effort has been made to investigate the microscopic coupled behavior of soil skeleton and water by employing the Discrete Element and Lattice Boltzmann coupled method. Many simulations were conducted under different constant pressure conditions with 2-D small model based on Hole Erosion Test presented by Wan and Fell (2004). Soil erosion parameters (such as, hole diameter φt, shear stress τt, erosion rate ε) are calculated and compared with the results available in the literature. Consequently, this study facilitates more realistic simulations compare to the available tests and simulations in the literature.
