Breaching of embankments has recently drawn more and more attention due to its importance in the development of early warning systems for embankment failures,in the evacuation plans of people at risk,in the design method of embankments based on a risk-approach,etc. The erosion process observed during embankment breaching tests in the laboratory and the analysis of the results are described in this paper. Five embankments,one constructed with pure sand,four with different sand-silt-clay mixtures were tested. The height of the embankments was 75 cm and the width at the crest was 60 cm. Examination of the data from these tests indicated that headcut erosion played an important role in the process of breach growth in the embankments made of cohesive soil mixtures. Flow shear erosion,fluidization of the headcut slope surface,undermining of the headcut due to impinging jet scour and discrete soil mechanical slope mass failure from the headcut were all observed during these tests. For the embankment constructed with pure sand,the breach erosion process was dominated by shear erosion,which led to a gradual and relatively uniform retreat of the downstream slope. The cohesive proportion in the sand-silt-clay mixtures strongly slowed down the erosion process.
