Étude expérimentale de la rupture progressive d'une digue par surverse

Details

Supervisors

Soares Frazao, Sandra ; Bousmar, Didier

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil des constructions, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

enFaced with an increase in the frequency of floods worldwide, prevention technologies, although advancing, sometimes struggle to counter the destructive force of nature. Among the solutions, dikes represent a quick and economical method to retain water, thus preventing disasters. However, they remain vulnerable and can break during floods. It is therefore important to continue research on their behavior in crisis situations. This work follows the series of tests conducted at UCLouvain by Descantons and Dujardin (2014) on a dike about twenty centimeters high and by Gilles and Delforge (2023) on a one-meter-high dike. We are using the testing platform employed by the latter. In order to analyze the influence of different parameters on the temporal evolution of a breach on a sand dike, three test campaigns were conducted. For the first series of tests, we imposed a constant water height upstream of the dike. For the second, we imposed a constant flow rate feeding the basin upstream of the dike. The third series of tests also took place with a constant flow rate but used coarser sand. These different series of tests, as well as the experiments conducted by Descantons and Dujardin (2014) on a smaller-scale dike, are compared to evaluate the impact of various parameters, such as the water supply mode to the basin upstream of the dike, the type of sand used to build the dike, and the effects of the geometric scale of the dike. Through our work, we contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of dike failure due to overflow, in order to develop prevention and management strategies to address the disasters caused by these failures.