Simulation of the beginning of failure in rockfill dams caused by overtopping

Abstract

This paper presents the work carried out during the last years for the creation of a numerical model to simulate transient seepage phenomena in rockfill dams when overtopping occurs. The objective is to analyze the trigger of failure mechanism in the downstream slope due to hydrodynamic forces. The current work aims to give a contribution to this field proposing a new computational method of general applicability for simulating, with a unique formulation, the flow throughout and over the dam while failure occurs together with the dam structural response. The numerical results are validated with experiments on scale models rockfill dams.