Internal erosion of granular materials – Identification of erodible fine particles as a basis for numerical calculations

Abstract

In geohydromechanics internal erosion is a process which is still hardly to be quantified both spatially as well as temporally. The transport of fine particles, which is caused by increased hydraulic gradients, is influenced by the pore structure of the coarse grained fabric. The microstructural information of the pore constriction size distribution (CSD) of the solid skeleton has therefore to be taken into account when internal erosion is analyzed either analytically or numerically. The CSD geometrically defines the amount of fine particles, which potentially can be eroded away for a given hydraulic force. The contribution introduces experimental and numerical calculations which aim at the quantification of the amount of erodible fines. Based on this approach a multiphase continuum-based numerical model is used to back calculate the process of internal erosion for one material of the well-known experimental investigation of Skempton & Brogan (1994)[1]