NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON LANDSLIDE DAM FAILURE BY SLIDING

Abstract

Landslides and debris flows due to heavy rains or earthquakes may block a river flow and create landslide dam naturally. Landslide dams may fail by erosion due to overtopping, abrupt collapse of the dam body or progressive failure. The peak discharge produced by abrupt collapse of the dam is very high compared with other types of failure. However, in-depth knowledge of the mechanism of the dam failures and measured data are still lacking. Numerical simulation and flume experiments were performed to investigate the mechanism of landslide dam failure due to sliding. A stability model coupled with a seepage flow model was used for numerical simulation. Comparison result of numerical simulation and experimental measurement is quite close in terms of movement of moisture in the dam body, predicted critical slip surface and time to failure of the dam body. It shows the potential of the numerical model to be extended for the prediction of flood/debris flow hydrograph by abrupt collapse of the landslide dam.