A Model for Breach Erosion in Clay-Dikes

Failure of a dike is usually a serious accident and in most cases induces huge disaster. A model which is able to predict the dike breach erosion process as well as the breach flow hydrograph is therefore of outstanding significance for disaster mitigation, damage assessment and risk analysis, etc. A model for breach erosion in clay-dikes (i.e. dikes constructed with cohesive soil) is outlined. The model is based on the breach erosion process as described by Zhu et al. The model has been tested with the data of three laboratory experiments undertaken at HR Wallingford in the UK. Both the breach flow hydrograph and the breach development have been predicted by the model and the agreements between the model predictions and the experimental data are good.