Drs. Fine, Hoffman & Sims

The failure mechanism of piping, which involves the formation of pipes and their subsequent growth from downstream to upstream, often occurs under river dikes and earth dams. When the water level is high, this process manifests itself in sand boils developed by sand carried out of an aquifer through seepage. In this paper, horizontal and vertical groundwater discharges are derived as a function of growing pipe length based on Darcy’s law and the continuity equation. The interaction between the groundwater and pipe characteristics is described using existing theories outlined in the available literature. Subsequently, this analytical groundwater–erosion model is calibrated and validated by laboratory tests. For verification purposes, the computational and experimental results of hydraulic gradients, hydraulic heads, and pipe lengths are discussed in relation to certain large-scale tests.