Backward erosion piping (BEP) is a type of internal erosion that threatens the integrity of dams and levees. BEP has been shown to be highly sensitive to spatial variations in soil properties; however, there are presently no assessment methods that permit incorporating spatial variation in soil properties into BEP analysis. The Random Finite Element Method (RFEM) is a numerical approach for incorporating spatially variable properties into finite element analysis. In this study, an RFEM approach to simulating BEP was developed to assess pipe progression through variable soils. The soil hydraulic conductivity and critical hydraulic gradient for pipe progression were treated as log-normal random variables. Analyses were conducted for a range of hydraulic conductivity and critical gradient random fields with varied spatial correlation lengths, distribution parameters, and field correlations. Results indicate that the probability of failure increases with increasing spatial correlation length. Additionally, increased variance in soil permeability was shown to increase the probability of failure for large correlation lengths and decrease the probability of failure for short correlation lengths. Regardless of correlation length, increasing values of the mean critical hydraulic gradient led to decreased failure probabilities, and increasing values of critical hydraulic gradient variance led to increased failure probabilities.

后向侵蚀管道 (BEP) 是一种内部侵蚀，威胁大坝和堤坝的完整性。BEP 已被证明对土壤特性的空间变化高度敏感；然而，目前还没有允许将土壤特性的空间变化纳入 BEP 分析的评估方法。随机有限元方法 (RFEM) 是一种将空间可变特性纳入有限元分析的数值方法。在这项研究中，开发了一种模拟 BEP 的 RFEM 方法来评估管道在可变土壤中的进展。管道进展的土壤导水率和临界水力梯度被视为对数正态随机变量。对一系列具有不同空间相关长度的水力传导率和临界梯度随机场进行了分析，分布参数和场相关性。结果表明失效概率随着空间相关长度的增加而增加。此外，土壤渗透性变化的增加显示出大相关长度的失效概率增加，并降低了短相关长度的失效概率。无论相关长度如何，平均临界水力梯度值的增加导致失效概率降低，而临界水力梯度方差值的增加导致失效概率增加。土壤渗透性变化的增加被证明会增加大相关长度的失效概率，并降低短相关长度的失效概率。无论相关长度如何，平均临界水力梯度值的增加导致失效概率降低，而临界水力梯度方差值的增加导致失效概率增加。土壤渗透性变化的增加被证明会增加大相关长度的失效概率，并降低短相关长度的失效概率。无论相关长度如何，平均临界水力梯度值的增加导致失效概率降低，而临界水力梯度方差值的增加导致失效概率增加。