The Netherlands is a country that is being
threatened by water, both from the rivers and from the sea. The Dutch have
built dikes to keep their lands from inundation. To ensure the strength and
stability of these dikes, they are being assessed on the basis of several
failure mechanisms. One of these failure mechanisms is Backward Erosion Piping,
or piping for short. In piping, the current underneath a dike is strong enough
to take soil particles with it. Tests on piping in tidal subsoil were conducted
in the summer of 2021, where a pipe was found to have grown at greater depth
than expected The occurrence of this deeper piping has rarely been seen before,
let alone described. This lack of knowledge poses a potential safety risk, as
it may underestimate the vulnerability of certain subsoil configurations.
Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to develop a comprehensive understanding
of deeper piping and identify the key parameters influencing its formation. To
achieve this objective, a definition of deeper piping and its differentiation
from conventional piping is established. Sub-mechanisms governing deeper piping
are examined by analysing the forces responsible for grain movement and the
forces that maintain grain stability. A Finite Element Model of the subsoil is
constructed to quantify the driving forces within the subsoil, which, when
combined with resisting forces, enables the determination of whether deeper
piping can occur in a given subsoil configuration. To investigate the factors
contributing to deeper piping, a series of simulations are conducted using this
Finite Element Model. By varying the parameter values while keeping other
factors constant, the influence of each parameter on the occurrence of deeper
piping was examined. The analysis revealed that several key parameters
significantly affect deeper piping formation, including cohesion force (P), cohesion anisotropy (?P ), permeability and thickness of the top layer (X0 and 70,
respectively), permeability of underlying layer (X1), permeability anisotropy (?X ) and representative grain diameter Q_R]. Also, it was found that the entrance configuration plays a large
role in deeper pipe formation. These findings provide valuable insights into
the mechanisms underlying deeper piping and enhance our ability to identify
subsoil configurations that are prone to this phenomenon. These findings
enhance the identification of subsoil configurations prone to deeper piping,
thereby improving risk assessment and mitigation strategies associated with
this failure mechanism.