Internal erosion and piping which can occur in embankment dams, levees, and their foundations is the cause of about half of large embankment dam failures. Most internal erosion and piping failures occur due to concentrated leak erosion which is commonly initiated in a transverse crack in the embankment resulting from cross valley differential settlements. This paper presents the development of suitable numerical simulation procedures for predicting the potential location of transverse cracks, crack width and depth in embankment dams during and post dam construction using a combination of conventional numerical and crack propagation modelling techniques. The crack propagation is simulated based on the Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method (SBFEM) combined with the quadtree mesh. Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) is used to model the fracture behaviour of the core soil. The Maximum Circumferential Stress Theory (MCST) including the T-stress is adopted as the crack propagation criterion. The developed simulation procedures have been tested with two case studies of dams which have experienced cracking. The predicted location of cracks, crack width and depth show reasonable agreements with the field observations.

堤坝，堤坝及其地基中可能发生的内部侵蚀和管道问题是造成大型堤坝故障一半的原因。大多数内部侵蚀和管道故障是由于集中的泄漏侵蚀引起的，通常是由于跨谷差异沉降导致的路堤横向裂缝引起的。本文介绍了使用常规数值和裂纹扩展建模技术相结合的，用于预测堤坝中横向裂缝的潜在位置，裂缝宽度和深度的合适数值模拟程序的开发。裂纹扩展是基于比例边界有限元方法（SBFEM）结合四叉树网格进行模拟的。线性弹性断裂力学（LEFM）用于模拟岩心土的断裂行为。采用包括T应力的最大周向应力理论（MCST）作为裂纹扩展准则。所开发的模拟程序已通过两个经历开裂的大坝案例研究进行了测试。裂缝的预测位置，裂缝宽度和深度与现场观察结果显示出合理的一致性。