Soil cement is a construction material with significant potential for widespread application in water resource management, particularly in providing overtopping protection for levees. However, the requirement for base soil to have a specific particle composition-predominantly coarse particles with minimal fine particles-limits its broader practical use. This study focuses on clarifying the erosion resistance of soil-cement material manufactured from clayey silt (ML) soil, a type of soil that does not meet the Portland Cement Association's requirements for mixing with fly ash and cement. Hydraulic model experiments were conducted to assess the erosion resistance of this soil-cement material under overflow conditions. Remarkably, the results showed high erosion resistance, withstanding flow velocities exceeding 6.15 m/s with minimal erosion damage. This level of performance suggests that the ML soil-fly ash-cement solution is well-suited for protecting levees up to 4 m in height during overtopping events. Specifically, for levees with a height of 3 m and slope coefficients of m = 2 and m = 3, the permissible overflow depths are 0.4 m and 0.5 m, respectively. For 4 m-high levees with the same slope coefficients, the permissible overflow depths are 0.3 m and 0.4 m, respectively. Elucidating the erosion resistance of soil cement made from ML soil is expected to promote the application of this material for levee protection during overtopping scenarios.

With the frequent occurrence of natural disasters, the problem of dam failure with low probability and high risk has gradually attracted people's attention. This paper uses flume model tests to systematically analyze the overtopping failure mechanisms of concrete face rockfill dam (CFRD) and identify its failure modes. The tests reveal that the longitudinal erosion of the CFRD breach progress through stages of soil erosion, panel failures, and water flow stabilization. Meanwhile, the cross- breach process involves the evolution of breach size in rockfill materials, including traceable erosion, lateral broadening, and breach morphology stabilization. The fracture characteristics of the water-blocking panel are primarily evident in the flow-time curve. By analyzing the breach morphology evolution processes in longitudinal and cross sections, the flowtime curve can be subdivided into stages of burst flow formation, breach expansion with flow increase, rapid increase of breach flow discharge due to panel failures, and stabilization of breach flow and size. The primary damage process of the CFRD occurs in a cyclical stage of breach expansion, flow increase, panel failure, and rapid discharge. The rigid face plate and granular body structure contribute to partial dam failure, showing a tendency for gradual expansion of the breach. The longitudinal illustrates dam failure resulting from panel fracture and rockfill erosion interaction, while downstream slopes exhibit failure due to lateral intrusion of rockfill and cyclic instability. These research results can serve as a reference for constructing a concrete CFRD failure prediction model and conducting disaster risk assessments.

On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake triggered tsunamis that reached extensive areas along Japan's Pacific coast. There have been instances where embankments built on plains for expressways mitigated the impact of tsunami damage. In the vicinity of the Sendai-tobu highway, the presence of an embankment approximately 10 m high altered the course of the advancing tsunami, thereby preventing flooding. Establishing a multiplied defense system using road embankments necessitates understanding the deformation and collapse mechanisms of road embankments impacted by tsunamis following seismic motion. In this study, overtopping experiments were conducted by first applying seismic motion to model embankments, followed by introducing the first wave of breaking bores, and then simulating prolonged overtopping by the tsunami. The experimental findings indicated that within the embankments impacted by the tsunami, there was an immediate increase in what is presumed to be pore air pressure following the arrival of the breaking bores, followed by a rise in pore water pressure during subsequent overtopping. Moreover, embankments subjected to seismic motion exhibited accelerated erosion following the overtopping. These results imply that when embankments settle due to an earthquake, leading to relatively higher anticipated inundation depths and the potential for overtopping, it is crucial to implement measures to prevent the settlement of the crest for embankments expected to serve as part of a multiplied defense system.

This work physically simulates the effect of low and high flow rates and filling times of reservoirs and rupture due to overtopping (caused by intense rains) of small homogeneous silty-sand earthfill dams. The experiments seek to verify how input variations impact the formation of the breach and the rupture wave. The results show that different filling times, soil moisture and composition, and degree of compaction affect landfill saturation, failure time, and breach formation. The result confirms that smaller breaches with a higher degree of compaction led to a lower peak rupture flow compared to dams with low degree of compaction. The rupture hydrograph presents a faster descent stage than an exponential hydrograph. Simulations and models based on this law may minimize the effect of the dam-break wave, also impacting water resource decision-making for damage reduction. The results were extrapolated to a real prototype, providing information and a database for the studies of overtopping dam-break waves.