Breaching flow occurs during the breach development of the embankment, dike, earthen dam, landslide barrier, etc. and plays an import role in the breaching erosion as the driving force. According to the previous research, the breaching process can be classified into initiation phase, breach widening phase and breach deepening phase. Based on the breaching development classifications, the breaching flow can be seen as a special compound weir flow when the breach channel is in the relatively equilibrium condition. There were five physical flow models were designed in the hypothesis of rectangular shape and trapezoidal shape for the breach channel cross sections to study the breaching flow characteristics. The distributions of water level and velocity were measured and analysed in the breaching flows in overtopping condition and emerged condition. There were two helicoidal flows above the breach channel slopes and triangular hydraulic jump in the downstream of the breach channel in the overtopping condition and emerged condition. The hydraulic energy loss was calculated according to the breaching velocity and water level distribution in the upstream and downstream of the model. It is found that the test results of the breach flow physical model can be valuable to bring insight of the breaching process of embankment and make contributions to the validations and verifications of breach numerical models.
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