The Influence of Grain Size Distribution on the Hydraulic Gradient for Initiating Backward Erosion

Abstract

Backward erosion by piping is one of the processes that threaten the stability of river embankments in the Netherlands. During high river stages, groundwater flow velocities underneath the embankment increase as a result of the steepened hydraulic gradient. If a single outflow point exists or forms, the concentrated flow can entrain soil particles, leading to the formation of a subsurface pipe. The processes controlling this phenomenon are still relatively unknown due to their limited occurrence and because piping is a subsurface phenomenon. To study the initiation of piping, we performed laboratory experiments in which we induced water flow through a porous medium with a vertically orientated outflow point. In these experiments, we explicitly considered grain size variations, thus adding to the existing database of experiments. Our experiments showed that the vertical velocity needed for the initiation of particle transport can be described well by Stokes’ law using the median grain size. We combine this with a novel method to relate bulk hydraulic conductivity to the grain size distribution. This shows that knowledge of the grain size distribution and the location of the outflow point are sufficient to estimate the hydraulic gradient needed to initiate pipe formation in the experiment box.