Hydro-mechanical behaviour of soil experiencing seepage erosion under cyclic hydraulic gradient

Numerous incidents and failures of earth slopes, dykes, levees and embankment dams are caused by internal erosion. At a time of global climate change, rapid pore-water pressure changes in soil masses are frequently induced by extreme rainfall, storm surges, waves, flash floods and so on. Under such complex cyclic hydraulic conditions, the soil erodibility, hydraulic conductivity and subsequent stress–strain behaviour may differ from those under the monotonic seepage condition, and are still poorly understood. In this study, preliminary laboratory tests have been conducted to investigate the development of internal erosion and changes in hydraulic conductivity under one-way cyclic seepage, and the post-erosion stress–strain behaviour. Representative internally stable and unstable soils were tested. The effects of mean hydraulic gradient and cyclic gradient amplitude were investigated in detail. Results show that the erosion development is significantly influenced by both the initial grain size distribution and the pattern of imposed cyclic hydraulic gradient. The cyclic seepage promotes the loss of fine particles and leads to larger hydraulic conductivity. For the internally unstable soil, the eroded soil mass and hydraulic conductivity increased significantly with increasing cyclic gradient amplitude. Nevertheless, the internally stable soil experienced a small amount of particle loss, even under large cyclic gradients. For both types of soil, a larger cyclic gradient amplitude corresponds to a stronger post-erosion contractive shearing behaviour and a smaller critical friction angle.