Large-Scale Testing of Distributed Temperature Sensing for Early Detection of Piping

Abstract

Internal erosion is the cause of significant damage in dams and river embankments in many countries. In the last 20 years, the use of fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS) has proved to be an effective tool for the detection and quantification of leakages and internal erosion in dams. This work investigates the effectiveness of DTS for levee monitoring and focuses on the early detection of backward erosion piping. The latter is a failure mechanism that affects the foundation layer of structures resting on sandy soils. The paper presents data from a piping test performed on a large-scale experimental levee equipped with a DTS system together with a large number of accompanying sensors. With the help of numerical modeling, the effect of seepage and backward erosion piping on the pore pressure and temperature field is analyzed, eventually bringing the identification of the processes that promote the onset of thermal anomalies.