8 / 2025-04-24 11:27:07

Experimental Study of Internal Erosion and Failure Processes in Embankment Dams Using the SEDS-Up Facility

Internal erosion, a gradual and often hidden process, can initiate a chain of subsequent events that may ultimately lead to the failure of embankment dams. To study these processes at a large scale, the Sustainable Engineering Design Scale-Up (SEDS-Up) Facility was established, providing a platform for investigating dams of various sizes and processes in both teaching and research contexts. This facility enables the testing and application of observational technologies to identify the consequences of erosion processes under controlled conditions.

This contribution introduces the SEDS-Up Facility and presents examples of experiments on embankment dam models. One series of experiments were conducted within a dam engineering course. In total, nine experiments were carried out, each designed to introduce an internal deficiency that would trigger an erosion process, ultimately leading to global failure. The event tree analysis developed by the Technical Committee TC201 on Geotechnical Aspects of Dikes and Levees of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) served as a guide for predicting the chain of processes, forming the basis for the subsequent analysis of the experiments.