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Amplification effect of cascading breach discharge of landslide dams

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Abstract

Affected by earthquakes and heavy rainfall, multiple landslide dams often cluster closely together along river reaches or gullies. Compared with a single landslide dam, the burst flood produced by the cascading failure of multiple landslide dams can be enhanced, seriously threatening life and property downstream. Here, we conduct a series of experiments in a 42 m flume to investigate the failure mechanisms of single and paired dams with fine-grained, well-graded, and coarse-grained debris; analyze the effects of dam geometry and initial water level of a downstream dam on the cascading breach; and quantitatively evaluate the amplification effect of cascading breach discharge. Single dams fail by overtopping along with seepage instability for a fine-grained dam, headcutting for a well-graded dam, and overtopping for a coarse-grained dam, respectively. The type of failure which occurs for a single dam is influenced by the shear strength of the dam material and seepage. However, the downstream dams in cascading tests fail by overtopping irrespective of dam material due to the large outburst floods from the upstream dams. A general flat slope angle is maintained during breaching for the fine-grained and coarse-grained dams, while a step-pool structure is developed for the well-graded dams because the finer grains are easier to wash away than coarse grains. The peak breach discharge for a downstream dam is 1.4–1.9 times the value for an upstream dam in the experimental runs, indicating the amplification effect of breach discharge. The amplification effect has a negative linear correlation with the time interval between the peak breach discharges of the two dams because the overlap of breach processes of upstream and downstream dams is gradually reduced as the time interval increases.

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Abbreviations

A f :

Amplification factor of the peak discharge

A l :

Surface area of lake water

C :

Cohesion of dam material

C c :

Curvature coefficient of the grading curve

C u :

Uniformity coefficient of the grading curve

d 50 :

Median grain size of a dam material

d h :

Height of a downstream dam

d w :

Crest width of a downstream dam

f s :

Seepage stress

F s :

Sliding stress generated by gravity

g :

Gravitational acceleration

h :

Slide thickness

h r :

The maximum residual dam height

H t :

Upstream water level

H ti :

Water level at each of the four measuring points

h w :

Initial difference of impounded water level between the upstream and downstream dam

i :

Hydraulic gradient

k :

Saturated permeability coefficient of dam material

q b :

Breach discharge of a dam

q d :

Peak discharge of a downstream dam

q in :

Inflow rate to the reservoir upstream of a dam

q s :

Seepage discharge through a dam

q u :

Peak discharge of an upstream dam

R s :

Resistance stress

s :

Stability coefficient of a downstream dam slope

t bo :

Time from the breach of an upstream dam to overflow of a downstream dam

t int :

Time interval between peak breach discharges of the two dams

α :

Angle of downstream dam slope

θ :

Slope angle of a residual dam

ρ d :

Dry density of a dam material

ρ w :

Water density

σ :

Effective normal stress

φ :

Internal friction angle of a dam material

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge funding from the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41731283, 41877234, 42007252, and 42061160480). Constructive reviews by the editor and two anonymous reviewers helped to improve the manuscript and are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Tongji, China

    Hongchao Zheng, Zhenming Shi, Ming Peng & Shijin Feng

  2. Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics and Geohazards of Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China

    Shenggong Guan

  3. School of Engineering, Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Kevin J. Hanley

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  1. Hongchao Zheng
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  2. Zhenming Shi
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  3. Ming Peng
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  6. Shijin Feng
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Correspondence to Ming Peng or Shenggong Guan.

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Zheng, H., Shi, Z., Peng, M. et al. Amplification effect of cascading breach discharge of landslide dams. Landslides 19, 573–587 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01816-0

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