Establishing Long Term Seepage Behavior of Zoned Embankment Dams with Three-Dimensional Seepage Analysis
Year: 2009
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Since seepage-related problems are the main cause of morethan fourty percent of dam failures, seepage analysis is oneof the most important stages in the design process of anembankment dam. Seepage factors must be monitored in thedam’s body, abutments, and foundation during dam'soperating life for evaluating safety and conducting riskassessments [1]. Most of e designing analysis is performedtwo-dimensionally and therefore, little attention is paid toseepage through abutments. On the other hand, the extensionof the grout curtain inside the abutments, abutment materialproperties and dam site inhomogeneities, such as fault andcrushed zones are inevitably neglected when performing 2Dseepage analyses by this reason, 2D seepage analysis doesnot reflect real seepage factors and parameters [2]. In thiscase study, two and three-dimensional finite element (FE)models of an earth-fill dam are generated. Several steadystate seepage analyses, as long term seepage behaviorevaluation, are performed; the results are compared with theseepage monitored data from the instrumentation systeminstalled in the dam body and foundation. It is concluded thatconventional two-dimensional seepage models lead to resultsthat are somewhat unrealistic; instead, three-dimensional(3D) models are much more representative of reality and canbe used to evaluate seepage parameters in embankment dams.
Authors: Farzad Ferdos, Fardin Jafarzadeh
Institution: Chalmers University of Technology
Language: English
Topic: Dam Engineering and Safety
Subfield: Civil and Structural Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W37556779