Dike failure due to overtopping is one of the important factors, which should be considered in the dike designing process. Although the overflow is characterized by the relatively low risk of occurrence, in many cases dikes are totally destroyed or seriously damaged. An interesting phenomenon occurring during overflow is the trapping of air in pores of the unsaturated soil material. As the infiltration progresses from all sides,...

Flow in flood dikes, earth dams, and embankments occurs in variably saturated conditions, with pores of the earth material filled partly with water and partly with air. In routine engineering analysis, the influence of pore air is neglected and the air pressure is assumed equal to atmospheric. In some circumstances, for example, during overtopping of the dike by water, the effect of pore air on water flow and stability of the structure...

The paper presents result of series of experiments made within the DREDGDIKES project, performed on a test dike built from composite soil. The composite is produced by mixing fly ash (by-product of energetics) with dredged material (sand) taken from the mouth of The Vistula river. The test dike, located near Gdansk in Poland, was subjected to hydraulic load in several flooding time scenarios and the unsaturated unsteady flow was...

In the project DredgDikes the different research dike embankments were tested with respect to overflowing water induced erosion. Therefore, flumes were installed on the land side embankments in which the effect of overflowing water on the vegetated surface was investigated. On the Polish DredgDikes research dike near Gdansk, Poland, two parallel flumes were installed and the surface of the dike made of different mixtures of...

Human tissue is one of the most complex optical media since it is turbid and nonhomogeneous. We suggest a new optical method for sensing physiological tissue state, based on the collection of the ejected light at all exit angles, to receive the full scattering profile. We built a unique set-up for noninvasive encircled measurement. We use a laser, a photodetector and finger tissues-mimicking phantoms presenting different optical...