The main objective with this literature survey is to elucidate the state of the art of internal erosion in embankment dams in order to be able to formulate a research program for numerical modelling of internal erosion in a physically sound manner. Since these processes normally are localised to specific zones in a dam, the ordinary continuum approach frequently utilised in soil modelling will not, by itself, be successful. The plan of the research group is therefore to treat internal erosion numerically as a type of localisation and describe the constitutive behaviour with micromechanical models in localised zones.
In the next step, the internal erosion model developed will be implemented in a mathematical consistent fashion in a continuum model, based on e.g. the finite element method. In such software, ordinary computations of stresses, strains, deformations and pore pressures in an embankment dam can be performed; results which possible lead to conclusions about the initiation of internal erosion processes. When internal erosion is initiated, the micromechanical models will describe these processes in localised zones.