Forty Fort Levee Seepage and Stability Modeling with MPM
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Forty Fort, a township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA has experienced countless flooding events over the past 140 years due to its proximity to the Susquehanna River and despite the presence of protective levee infrastructure. The most recent major flood event occured in September 2011 and was the result of two heavy rainfall events occuring a week apart: Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. During the flood, seepage was observed in several locations along the levee and the levee required emergency repairs. Although the levee was not overtopped, evacuations were ordered. In the face of more severe rainfall events in the future, we have partnered with the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority to collect geospatial and geotechnical records of the levee and adjacent river channel and to perform numerical seepage and stability simulations. High resolution LiDAR data collected via quadcopter drone and bathymetric data collected using a remote-controlled boat equipped with a single beam echo sounder were used to develop detailed cross sections of the Forty Fort levee and adjacent river channel. Historic boring data was supplemented with cone penetration, dilatometer, and seismic testing data collected as a part of this study to ascertain geotechnical properties. The 2D geometry and soil profile was incorporated into the GiD pre-processer and the Anura3D material point method platform was used to perform seepage and stability simulations. We attempt to replicate the seepage event observed in 2011 using Anura3D’s implementation of the two-phase formulation for unsaturated soil[1] and a transient hydraulic boundary condition.
