Numerical Analysis of 1D Seepage Failure Process of Sandy Materials by CWENO Method

Abstract

This paper proposes a numerical method to simulate the seepage failure of sandy materials, known as sand boils or quicksand. The sand is largely deformed and the particles rapidly migrate with the seepage water after the seepage failure. In order to deal with the large deformation and the migration of the sand particles, an Eulerian formulation is applied to the governing equations, i.e., the equations for the conservation of mass and momentum of seepage water and sand, which yields a system of hyperbolic partial differential equations. To achieve stable and accurate numerical solutions for the hyperbolic system, the Central Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (CWENO) method is employed herein. The numerical simulation of the 1D seepage failure of sand, induced by an upward seepage flow, is conducted and the computation is compared with analytical solutions. The results show that the proposed method can reproduce the behavior of sand particles and seepage water during seepage failure.