Think your numerical levee model can ‘survive’ the test of full-scale failure experimental data?
This prediction competition is offered as a challenge to geotechnical numerical modelers, particularly those individuals or corporations modeling levee systems. Three well-controlled, full-scale test levees will be brought to failure in late August 2012 and we invite you to submit your Class-A predictions of the timing and mode of failure for one, two, or all three of these tests. For those who are unfamiliar with the IJkdijk full-scale levee testing facility, please visit http://www.ijkdijk.eu/. You can also view the following video of a stability experiment conducted on a 100m long levee at this facility in 2008. All information on the upcoming tests can be obtained by registering through this website. This information includes levee profiles, available instrumentation, soil parameters, planned loading sequence, etc.
Submissions should be sent no later than August 19, 2012 for the piping tests and September 2, 2012 for the slope stability test, i.e. before the start of each test. Any predictions received after these dates will be considered Class-C predictions. Send submissions to andre.koelewijn@deltares.nl, or abdout@rpi.edu, or send by regular mail to Deltares, attn. Andre Koelewijn, P.O. Box 177, 2600 MH Delft, Netherlands. Please be aware that your prediction should be received in time!
The results of the tests and this prediction competition will be presented at a conference in The Netherlands by the end of 2012 (preliminary results) and at a possible workshop at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY, USA) in early 2013 (final results).
For all tests, this is the question to answer: ‘At what loading stage does failure occur?’
The moment of failure is defined as the point at which the test can no longer be continued with an increase of loading, because of excessive deformations, like leakage of the reservoir or a large slide of the levee. In case your prediction depends on the load history, please also indicate how (at least by approximation). Please provide details on the method(s) used for the prediction (calculation method, interpretation of available data, results for intermediate stages, etc.).
