Effect of the Level of Compaction on the Internal Erosion Potential for Granular Soils

摘要

Internal erosion occurs when the seepage forces wash out the fines of a non-uniform soil along the pre-existing openings (e.g., cracks and voids), resulting into substantial increase in permeability. Given that the drainage characteristics of soils are significantly influenced by the shapes, packing arrangement and size distribution of their particles, the erosion of fines can alter the drainage characteristics. The assessment for internal erosion potential is normally obtained based on grain size distribution ignoring the effect of compaction and particles' shapes. In this study, the experimental results of hydraulic gradient controlled erosion tests, conducted over a select range of compacted soils, were used to compare with the internal erosion assessments from some of the existing criteria. Consequently, a new approach that considers the shapes, packing arrangement and size distribution of particles for assessing their internal erosion potential is proposed that showed highest success rate compared to the rest.