Arrange of Stiffner to Prevent Abrupt Levee Overtopping Failure

Abstract

The frequency of rainfall and the intensity are increasing under climate change conditions. The increase in inflow causes a discharge exceeding the storage and spillway capacity of reservoirs. Discharge exceeding the capacity of the structure induces overtopping, a dominant cause of levee collapse. Various reinforcement methods were applied to increase the stability of the levee. The installation of levee reinforcement is one of the methods to increase the stability of the levee. A study on the reinforcement installation is necessary to evaluate the delay effect of collapse with respect to the reinforcement and its arrangement. In this study, physical experiments were conducted to evaluate the delay effect of collapse with respect to the reinforcement. For the experiment, a soil embankment was constructed in a water tank. A constant discharge was supplied to the embankment, and a spillway was constructed to induce overtopping. Reinforcements were placed on the levee to compare the time for collapse and reaching the collapse stage according to the reinforcement arrangement. As a result, the embankment with reinforcement required more time to collapse than that without. The optimal arrangement of reinforcement was determined by comparing the difference in the collapse depth and stage over time.