| Summary: | Erosion is a major environmental problem to agricultural land as well as to civil engineering infrastructures. Rainwater infiltration into granular soils can lead to the migration of fine particles by suffusion. This experimental study is conducted to evaluate the susceptibility to erosion of cohesionless soils. The soil under investigation was collected from the coastal region of Mostaganem (West of Algeria) where erosion has recently caused several damages. To assess soil instability to erosion, two approaches have been proposed in the literature: the geometric approach and the hydraulic approach. Few studies have examined the combination of the two methods. The objective of our study is the combination of the two approaches by determining the critical hydraulic load responsible for triggering erosion as a function of soil characteristics. An experimental parametric study was conducted to determine the influence of initial amount of fines, hydraulic gradient and axial stress on the initiation and evolution of suffusion. A combination of the interactions between these parameters allowed us to express the critical hydraulic gradient and to identify the hydraulic behavior of the soil according to the studied parameters. This approach can better estimate the erodibility of cohesionless soils. It can be used in future development studies at this site to reduce the risk of erosion.
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