ABSTRACT
Fluvial dikes are commonly constructed for flow channelization, riverbed meandering prevention and as flood defense structures. The aging of dikes increases their vulnerability to extreme hydrological events that may cause their failure. Many laboratory experimental studies of dike failure were conducted, but most of them focused on normal configurations (i.e. dam break configuration), without accounting for the influence of a flow parallel to the dike. Various approaches were used for monitoring the breach evolution. In this paper, we present and evaluate a non-intrusive and distributed measurement technique: the laser profilometry, which is less sensitive to artefacts that result from reflection on the water surface and turbidity than other classical non-intrusive distributed measuring techniques (i.e. fringe projection or close-range photogrammetry). Neither the location of the camera nor that of the laser are required, which highlights the flexibility of such approach. Testing the laser profilometry on dike like scaled models implementing lens distortions and water refraction correction modules yield satisfactory results.
