TAN Shui-wei, CHEN Wen-xue, WU Yi-hong, HE Yi-ying (State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China)

Abstract: The seeded sandbag is a new kind of material for green retaining wall, which can be used not only in ground greening, but also in the riverside or shoreline because it is in favor of plant growth when the soil is filled in the seeded sandbag. The scour velocity of the seeded sandbag is studied in a pressure flume, and the factors affecting the scour velocity and the instability mechanism of the seeded sandbag system has been analyzed in this paper. The result shows that the soil gradation is the key factor affecting the scour velocity of the seeded sandbag, and the soil gradation can be selected according to “Standard for applications of geosynthetics in hydraulic and hydro-power engineering” for increasing the scour velocity. When the soil gradation meets the requirement of the Standard, the scour velocity can be as high as 4m/s. When the flow velocity is over 3.5m/s, the strength of the connection unit should be increased for increasing the stability of the seeded sandbag system.

Key words: seeded sandbag, scour velocity, ecological revetment

Published in: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 44, No. 3, 2013