Relationship between seepage water volume and total suspended solids of landslide dam failure caused by seepage: an experimental investigation

Abstract

Background Landslide dams inevitably demonstrate the potential for catastrophic failure with high-risk damage to life and property at the downstream site. Hence, knowledge of the internal stability of dam materials is a key to predicting the seepage failure of landslide dams. In this study, experiments were conducted to examine the relationship between seepage volume and total suspended solids (TSS) of seepage water based on hydro mechanical constrains. Understanding the relationship between the seepage volume and TSS with hydro-mechanical constraints supports the prediction of the seepage failure of landslide dams at the field level. Result Experiments were conducted with a mixed sample of silica sands. Seepage water was collected from a flume tank with the facility to measure the hydraulic gradient, vertical displacement, and seepage water volume. Grain size affected the life span of the dam. The seepage volume increased with the increase in the percentage of silica sand S4, whereas TSS increased with the increase in the percentage of silica sand S8. With the increase in the dam height, the dam life decreases for low coeficient of uniformity of the grain size distribution. With the increase in the reservoir size, TSS decreased, and the total seepage volume increased. Conclusion Dam failure depends on the particle size, dam geometry, inflow rates, reservoir size, hydraulic gradient, and seepage water volume, and TSS of seepage water. The results indicated that with the increase in fine particles, the life span decreases, and TSS increases. With the increase in the flow rate, the dam life span decreases, and the TSS and seepage volume rate increase.The dam height leads to an increase seepage volume with low TSS, where the life span of the dam also depends on the particle size distribution With the increase in the reservoir size, the seepage water volume decreases with low TSS.

Assessment of the Current Spatiotemporal Variations of Total Suspended Solid on the Surface Waters of Kuala Perlis, Perlis

“…Studies found that water flows positively influenced the TSS distribution in water bodies. A study by Dhungana & Wang (2020) confirmed that the flow rate increases the TSS concentration and eventually permits dam failure. TSS content in the water bodies, especially in lower drainage basins, is highly responsive to variations in flow rate (López et al, 2021).…”

“…In recent years, several studies have focused on the possible factors affecting the spatiotemporal variation of total suspended solids distribution in water bodies. Factors affecting the spatiotemporal distribution of TSS in river bodies are water flow rate, salinity, tidal movement and anthropogenic activities (Che Ali et al, 2020;Che Ngah et al, 2012;Dhungana & Wang, 2020;Håkanson, 2006;Rossi et al, 2006).…”

Numerical Simulation on the Longitudinal Breach Process of Landslide Dams Using an Improved Coupled DEM-CFD Method

“…This kind of subsidence is similar to backward erosion and the failure point develops from the downstream slope to the dam crest. The dam material composed of fine particles can reduce the void ratio and improve the impermeability of the dam (Dhungana and Wang, 2020). Compared with Figure 9A, the dam in Figure 9E has experienced a complete overtopping breach process.…”

Importance of seismic wave frequency in FEM-based dynamic stress and displacement calculations of the earth slope

“…Based on case studies (Rico et As pointed out by Vogel (2013), due to numerous TSF failures worldwide, there were almost 2400 fatalities between 1961 and 2020 (Owen, 2020; WISE, 2019), and we may expect that in the next few years, along with the increase of tailing production, this number will further increase (NRGI, 2017, Owen, 2020). There are numerous possible reasons for such a situation like the continuous expansion of dam volume due to the facility development, an increase of tailings and seepage volume (Dhungana, 2020) or intensification of extreme rainfall occurrence due to climate change (Myhre et al, 2019). On the other hand, in some cases, the exact reasons are unknown, which could lead to the conclusion that some mistakes have been made during the facility project and development or risk evaluation.…”