While backward erosion piping (BEP) and slope instability failure mechanisms have been investigated independently, they are not analyzed concurrently despite that the response of levees embankments to the BEP may likely impact the stability of the slope, especially if levees were to fail. This study presents a framework towards interfacing soil instability and BEP simulation with the goal of producing a performance model that considers the hydro-mechanical coupling between the material properties. This is afforded by updating the stiffness and strength properties of eroded zones based on the porosity changes that are determined according to a critical diameter model. The framework is then applied on a levee without a cutoff wall built on a silty sand foundation. The results show that the captured coupling between these two failure mechanisms crucially enhances our understanding of the performance of levee systems. Specifically, the results show that coupling effects are more substantial in cases where pipes extend to more than 50% of levee’s bottom width. Furthermore, the results indicate that ignoring the softening in the strength properties of the eroded zones due to BEP leads to overestimation of the slope’s factor of safety against instability by as much as 40%.

尽管已经对后向侵蚀管道（BEP）和边坡失稳破坏机制进行了独立研究，但尽管堤防堤对BEP的响应可能会影响边坡的稳定性，尤其是在堤防倒塌的情况下，也无法同时进行分析。这项研究提出了一个介面土壤不稳定性和BEP模拟的框架，目的是产生一个考虑材料特性之间的水力-机械耦合的性能模型。通过根据根据临界直径模型确定的孔隙率变化来更新侵蚀区的刚度和强度特性，可以实现这一点。然后将框架应用到堤坝上，而无需在粉沙基础上建造防渗墙。结果表明，这两种故障机制之间的捕获耦合至关重要地增强了我们对堤防系统性能的理解。具体而言，结果表明，在管道延伸至堤防底部宽度的50％以上的情况下，耦合效果更为显着。此外，结果表明，忽略由于BEP而引起的侵蚀区强度特性的软化会导致将坡度抵抗不稳定的安全系数高估40％。