Abstract
Internal erosion is a major cause related to nearly half of dam dysfunctions and failures. This phenomenon occurs when loose soil particles are transported outwards the soil mass by seepage through a series of pores and pore constrictions. As loose particles are usually fine and embedded in the pores formed by the soil primary fabric, traditional methods often correlate the representative sizes of fine and coarse particles to indicate the susceptibility to internal erosion of an assessed soil. These methods are not very accurate because soil particle size distribution can vary widely with several identical key sizes. This paper presents a new indicator for internal erosion assessment using the probability to be transported of loose particles: the segregation index. This index is estimated experimentally and analytically for the correlation with internal erosion test results. The index also has a significant role in the estimation of real effective stress of soils.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express gratitude to Mr. Lewis Batic and Mr. Troy Poole for their invaluable help in setting up initial laboratory tests. Special thanks to the College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University for the financial help via the Research Infrastructure Block Grant.
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To, P., Le Van, T. (2022). Segregation Index—A New Soil Parameter for Internal Erosion Assessment. In: Ha-Minh, C., Tang, A.M., Bui, T.Q., Vu, X.H., Huynh, D.V.K. (eds) CIGOS 2021, Emerging Technologies and Applications for Green Infrastructure. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 203. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7160-9_119
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7160-9_119
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