Seepage in a flood protection levee – first geotechnical centrifuge test results

Many flood protection levees in Europe were built more than 100 years ago. These levees often do not meet the current flood protection requirements due to increased level of safety requirements, higher damage potential in the valley plains and due to higher peak discharges or water levels expected with changing climatic conditions. A first series of centrifuge tests on two idealized cross-sections of the river Rhine flood protection levee have been carried out in the geotechnical centrifuge at Delft University of Technology in order to study the transient seepage behaviour of a horizontally layered levee consisting of layers with coarse and fine-grained material. Main features and design considerations of a specially manufactured flood simulator for the geotechnical centrifuge which allows replicating scaled flood events with predefined durations and intensities are presented. Furthermore, measured values of the pore pressure during the investigated flood event are reported and discussed in comparison to the results of finite element modelling of the levee. Finally, the potential impacts of the hydraulic boundary conditions on the seepage behaviour in the physical and numerical models of the levee are critically discussed.

Keywords:
Centrifuge modelling of a flood protection levee; Transient seepage flow; Numerical modelling of transient seepage flow