Two-phase modelling of erosion and deposition process during overtopping failure of landslide dams using GPU-accelerated ED-SPH

Erosion and deposition induced by overtopping flow strongly impacts the breaching evolution of landslide dams. However, these two processes are not yet sufficiently captured in current dam breaching models. In this paper, we simulate the Erosion and Deposition process during overtopping dam breaching using a novel Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (ED-SPH) method. A new multi-function boundary is proposed to prevent the penetration of water and soil particles and ensure steady inflows. Dam break and movable erosion scenarios are simulated as a means to validate the model. Dam breach simulations using the ED-SPH method reveal that the proposed model can capture the complex dam soil erosion, entrainment, and depositions behaviors. The soil deposition hinders the eroded particle movement and reduces the water velocity at the water-soil interface. If soil deposition is not considered, as in many existing models, the breaching time decreases and the outburst flood discharge is magnified. We further investigate the re-erosion of deposited soils by varying the re-erosion coefficient. With decreasing the re-erosion coefficient, the peak discharge increases whereas the residual dam height decreases due to the blockage by the deposited soils.

Automated summary

In this paper, the erosion and deposition processes during overtopping dam breaching are simulated using a novel method (ED-SPH). The proposed model is able to capture the complex behaviors of dam soil erosion, entrainment, and depositions. Soil deposition hinders particle movement and reduces water velocity at the water-soil interface.