Evaluation and prediction of 17th Street Canal I-wall stability using numerical limit analyses
Name
Whittle_Evaluation and.pdf
Size
1.37 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
236523b926b36957e9a10f16012f6eb6
Author(s)
Yuan, Yixing
Whittle, Andrew
Date Issued
January 2011
Journal
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Publisher
American Society of Civil Engineers
Citation
Yuan, Yixing and Andrew J. Whittle. "Evaluation and prediction of 17th Street Canal I-wall stability using numerical limit analyses." Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (June 2013), Vol. 139, No. 6, pp. 841-852.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Numerical limit analyses have been used to evaluate the stability of the 17th Street Canal I-wall
levee during Hurricane Katrina. The potential formation of a water-filled gap along the
canal-side soil-wall interface at failure is included in both the lower and upper bound
formulations. The analyses replicate published 2D cross-sections and soil properties developed
in forensic investigations carried out by the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force
(IPET), and by the Independent Levee Investigation Team (ILIT). The current results provide an
independent basis for understanding and evaluating the proposed failure mechanisms, and
demonstrate that a water-filled gap is a necessary condition for the critical I-wall failure
mechanism. Further limit analyses calculations produce credible estimates of the surge elevation
that caused failure of the 17th Street Canal I-wall as well as predictions of a consistent failure
mechanism. The numerical limit analyses show clearly how differences in the stability of the I-wall
are linked to different interpretations of the stratigraphy and undrained shear strengths by
IPET and ILIT. The analyses also show that effects of a thin layer of weak organic clay as
postulated by ILIT are not necessary to explain the I-wall failure.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Persistent DSpace Link
