Abstract
Riprap is widely used as erosion protection consisting of either dumped or, in an interlocking pattern, placed stones. Data about the stability and failure mechanism of riprap on steep slopes is scarce and hence subject to research. Dumped and placed ripraps constructed on a slope of 1:1.5 (vertical: horizontal) were exposed to overtopping scenarios in small scale model tests and in the field with large-scale riprap stones. Detected stone displacements in the riprap depict a two-dimensional deformation of the placed riprap structure. The displacements along the flow direction led to gap formation at the upstream section of the riprap where the adjacent stones lost their interlocking and became prone to erosion. In combination with a lift in the middle of the riprap, buckling is described as the failure mechanism for placed riprap with a fixed toe with analogy to Euler’s Buckling theory. Dumped riprap failed by sliding down the filter layer as soon as the top of the stones were overtopped by the flow.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank their advisors Prof. Leif Lia, Ass. Prof. Fjola G. Sigtryggsdottir and Prof. Jochen Aberle at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at NTNU for their support. The financial support of the collaborators within the project “Placed riprap on rockfill dams” (PlaF) coordinated by Energy Norway and the Research Council of Norway [project no. 235730] as well as the support of HydroCen, Norway is kindly acknowledged.
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Hiller, P.H., Ravindra, G.H.R. (2020). Stability and Failure Mechanisms of Riprap on Steep Slopes Exposed to Overtopping. In: Zhang, JM., Zhang, L., Wang, R. (eds) Dam Breach Modelling and Risk Disposal. ICED 2020. Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46351-9_9
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