Integrated Physical and Numerical Modelling to Study the Hydro-Mechanical Response of a River Embankment

Due to the increasingly frequent occurrence of extreme events related to climate change, the in-depth study of exceptional rainfall and flooding on earthen structures is essential. In particular, the associated consequences in terms of economic and human losses have caused the urgency of developing forecasting tools that can ensure a proper evaluation of expected impacts. In this regard, the paper reports the numerical modelling of a small-scale centrifuge test performed to study the hydro-mechanical response of a river embankment typical of the Alpine and Apennine tributaries of the Po River (Italy). The purpose was to set up a well-validated numerical model that may be used for fore-casting the behavior of river embankments under critical scenarios. In particular, the proposed fully coupled numerical modelling considers the partial saturation conditions of a compacted silty sand river embankment subjected to flooding. First, the numerical model parameters were carefully calibrated based on the results of laboratory tests conducted on the soils constituting the physical model. Afterwards, the model was validated by comparing the results of the simulation with the experimental data. It emerged that the numerical modelling proposed enables an accurate prediction of the pore-water pressures under various hydraulic loadings.