A numerical geotechnical model for computing soil slides at banks of water reservoirs

Abstract

Soil slides can occur when the water level in a lake or a reservoir is lowered. This may take place in situations when a reservoir is flushed to remove sediments. The current study describes a three-dimensional numerical model used for the simulation of reservoir flushing that includes the slide movements. The geotechnical failure algorithms start with modelling the groundwater levels at the banks of the reservoir. A limit equilibrium approach is further used to find the location of the slides. The actual movement of the sediments is computed by assuming the soil to be a viscous liquid and by solving the Navier–Stokes equations. The resulting bed elevation changes from the slides are computed in adaptive grids that change as a function of water level, bed erosion and slide movements. The numerical model is tested on the Bodendorf reservoir in Austria, where field measurements are available of the bank elevations before and after a flushing operation. The results from the numerical simulations are compared with these observations. A parameter test shows that the results are very sensitive to the cohesion and less sensitive to the E and G modules of the soil.