Breaking mode of cohesive homogeneous earth-rock-fill dam by overtopping flow

Breaking tests on homogeneous earth-rock-fill dams destroyed by overtopping flow are presented. Two types of shear erosion are found: wetting shear erosion and quick shear erosion; the water level-discharge process is divided into “sharp rise and drop of flow” and “slow change of flow” types. Furthermore, overtopping break modes are divided into head-cut erosion and scour breaching mode (Mode 1), shear erosion and collapse breaching mode (Mode 2), and wetting shear erosion mode (Mode 3) based on the main failure types and their coupled mode during dam break. In Mode 1, the downstream slope encounters head-cut erosion at the onset of the breach and expands and undercuts gradually at the development stage; in Mode 2, the dam slope encounters rapid shear erosion and the downstream edge of the crest erodes quickly towards the upstream face at the onset of breach: the breach expands suddenly due to instability and collapse at both sides of the breach in its development stage; in Mode 3, the strength of the dam’s materials continuously decreases by wetting and erosion happens is localised at positions where wetting caused the most strength loss, no obvious breach was developed. Dam breaking time, dam-break flow process, and the maximum discharge flow varied for each breaking mode. Overtopping flow size, materials, height, and initial breach size of dam are important factors influencing breaking mode, by virtue of their changing the relative strength of the relationship between the critical shear stress of dam materials at the edge of the dam crest and the lower parts of its slope, and the given flow’s destruction capacity. Overtopping will cause different manifestations of damage to be exhibited, so modal classification is favourable for safety assessment and preparation of relevant protective measures for protection of earth-rock-fill dam against overtopping.