<p> As the final line of defense against flood, it is important to protect the levees against erosion. The erodibility potential of levee material has an influence on scour generation in levees. In this investigation, the effect of various soil parameters including compaction ratio, plasticity index and saturation ratio on levee erosion due to overtopping is considered. For this purpose, physical models of a typical levee on the banks of Mississippi river with a scale of 1:20 were constructed in the laboratory using a variety of soil types including Non-Plastic Silt, Low-Plastic Clay, and the combination of these two to achieve various soil characteristics for levee material. A sharp wooden plate, which was embedded vertically in the crest of the levee, represented the floodwall. </p><p> During the lab tests different geometric and hydraulic parameters of the levee were monitored to identify scour development. In addition, the erodibility of the levee materials was determined using an Erosion Function Apparatus (EFA). The results of EFA tests were compared to physical model test results to explore and discuss the vulnerability of levee systems to erosion with change in levee material characteristics. The results were also compared to levees without floodwalls. The effect of wall inclination was also considered and analyzed. The effect of each soil parameter is discussed in detail on erosion characteristics measured by EFA and levee tests. </p><p> These tests and comparisons resulted in the observation that EFA yields lower erosion rates comparing to the simulated levee tests. Increasing the compaction rate and plasticity index improves the erodibility of levee material while increasing in saturation ratio, causes the erodibility of soil to increase. Wall Inclination does not have a significant effect on scour generation while levees without floodwalls show comparatively lower erosion rates.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10191376 |
| Date | 15 February 2017 |
| Creators | Karimpour, Mazdak |
| Publisher | Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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