Relationship Between Erodibility and Properties of Soils

Analysis of the erodibility of geomaterials is important for the study of problems related to soil erosion such as bridge scour, embankment overtopping erosion, and stream stability. Erodibility is the relationship between the soil erosion rate and fluid velocity or hydraulic shear stress. Since different soils have different geotechnical properties, their erosion rates vary.

The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 915: Relationship Between Erodibility and Properties of Soils provides reliable and simple equations quantifying the erodibility of soils on the basis of soil properties.

The report presents a detailed analysis of the issue. In addition, the project that developed the report also produced a searchable spreadsheet that uses statistical techniques to relate geotechnical properties to soil erodibility. The spreadsheet, NCHRP Erosion, includes a searchable database that includes compiled erosion data from the literature review and a plethora of erosion tests. It contains equations that may be used to estimate the erosion resistance of soil and determine whether erosion tests are needed.

The following appendices to NCHRP Report 915 were published online in a single Appendices Report:
Appendix 1 – Erosion Test Results Spreadsheets
Appendix 2 – Geotechnical Properties Spreadsheets
Appendix 3 – First and Second Order Statistical Analysis Results
Appendix 4 – Deterministic Frequentist Regression Analysis
Appendix 5 – Probabilistic Calibration Results