Which parameters should be valuable to consider in designing erosion tests for cohesive soil studies?
Erosion can only develop if two vital conditions are met: particles must be torn off and must be transported. Four types of erosion process, internal to the work, have been identified: 1) suffusion, which affects the soil structure, 2) evolution of defects in the soil matrix (holes, cracks), 3) backward erosion, 4) contact erosion between two soils.
Basically, the critical erosion shear stress of cohesive sediments depends on the granulometry (i.e. particle size and shape) and cohesive particle content whose diameter is finer than 2μm. A strong dependence on the consolidation degree of the water/sediment mixture has also been highlighted. This consolidation degree can be related to various experimental measurements such as porosity or water content measurements. In addition, the two main phenomena responsible for erosion of particles in uncracked soils are backward erosion and suffusion. In backward erosion particles are detached from the downstream surface by the outward seepage. The suffusion process is similar but the coarse particles form a matrix and erosion is only of the finer particles in the pore space between the larger particles.
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