Earthfill Dams

Most common type of dam. Designed as a non-overflow

section with separate spillway.

Classification of earthfill dams

1. Based on method of
construction
o Rolled fill
o Hydraulic fill

2. Based on earth materials

used for making the dam
section
o Homogeneous
o Non-homogeneous
 With inclined impervious
zone of artificial material
 With impervious zone of
low permeability soil
 With central core soil material of low permeability
 With central thin diaphragm of impervious material
Earthfill Dams
With inclined impervious zone of artificial material

With central core soil material of low permeability

With central thin diaphragm of impervious material

Earthfill Dams
Criteria for design:
1. Sufficient spillway capacity and
freeboard.
2. Seepage flow is controlled.
3. Uplift pressure is minimal.
4. The slopes of the embankment are
stable at all conditions.
5. Foundation pressures are within
strength of materials of foundation
material with suitable FoS.
6. Dam faces are properly protected.

Embankment material
requirement:
1. Insoluble, inorganic with liquid limit >
80 should be avoided.
2. FG soils with proper water content
for compaction and handling.
3. Well-graded soils over uniform
particle-sized soils.
4. Proper handling of clayey soils.
Earthfill Dams
Earth dams may fail due to faulty design, improper construction
and poor maintenance practices.

Modes of Failure:
1. Hydraulic failure
o By overtopping
o Erosion of downstream toe
o Erosion of upstream face
o Erosion of downstream face
2. Seepage failure
o Piping through dam body
o Piping through foundation
o Sloughing of downstream side of dam
3. Structural failure
o Slide in embankment
o Foundation slide
o Faulty construction/poor maintenance
o Earthquakes
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams

1. Crest of Dam
The crest width of dams should be sufficient to keep the seepage line within the
dam, when the reservoir is full. The crest width of the dam if road is not
envisaged should >= 3m for low and medium head dams and >= 6m for high
head dams.
Top width could be determined by the following:

o For very low dams

H
B  3
5
o For dams lower than 30 m
H
B  0.55( H )1/2 
5
o For dams higher than 30 m
B  1.65( H  1.5)1/3
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams

2. Side slopes
Side slope of dams must satisfy the static stability. However, since the stability
computations can be done only after defining the profile of the dam and
determining the seepage line, it becomes necessary to give an initial side
slopes. Initial slope could be taken from the following tables below.
According to the recommendations of Terzaghi:
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams

3. Berms
Berms are constructed at both the upstream and downstream side of the dam
for the purposes of observing the conditions of protections at the slopes and
their repairs and also for increasing the width of dam at the base with aim of
increasing seepage length. It is also done when constructions coffer dams are
made part of the body of the dam. At the downstream side, berms are done at
an interval of 10 – 15m high. Width of berm is taken between 1 – 2 m.
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams

4. Freeboard
Minimum freeboard is the vertical distance between the high flood level and
the crest of the dam with allowances for wind set-up, wave runup and other
contingencies. Freeboard recommended by the U.S.B.R. are given below:
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams

5. Slope protection
UPSTREAM Face
For protecting the upstream slope from deterioration and damage from wave
action, the slope is covered with different protective material (rock riprap, stone
pitching, concrete (reinforced), steel plates, brick tile pavement).
DOWNSTREAM Face
One of the cheapest, simple and effective methods of protecting the
downstream from rainfall and wind action is by planting green grass (turfs) on
the slope.
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams
6. Seepage through dam
Filtration (seepage) computation through dams are carried out with the aim of:
o Determining the position of the seepage
depression curve
o Finding the value of the gradient and
velocity of filtration
o Determine the filtration flow (discharge)

 The patterns are the same irrespective of

material. Only rates vary with soil type.
 The emergence of seepage lines on the
DS slope make DS slope unstable.
 Two alternatives: make DS slope very flat
or divert seepage.
 The amount of seepage is estimated
from a flow net.
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams
6. Seepage through dam
Casagrande has suggested
an approximate method for
drawing the seepage line
for an earth-fill dam on an
impervious foundation,
based on the assumption
that it is a parabola with a
focus f.
Properties:

 Consists of right angle intersecting equipotential lines and flowlines.

 Flow line distance is equal to potential lines.
 Exterior flow lines are equivalent to the seepage line and any impermeable
boundary.
 The seepage line in an earthfill dam is the line above which there is no hydrostatic
pressure.
 The parabola intersects the water surface at about 0.3 of the horizontal distance
from the face of the dam to the upstream toe of the embankment.
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams
6. Seepage through dam
Properties:

 The directrix of the parabola is a distance AD=Af from A, and every point on the
parabola is equidistant from the focus and the directrix.
 The upstream terminus of the seepage line is the intersection of the reservoir water
surface and the upstream face of the dam.
 The terminus of the seepage line at the downstream face (rock toe or blanket) is
below the point where the parabola intersects the face of the dam by the distance
Дy, which is defined by the equation:
180  
y  ( y  y )
400
 The seepage rate can be computed with Darcy’s law. Assuming the cross-section
to have a unit width, the flow through any square abcd is Дq=KДD(Дh/ДL). Since
ДD=ДL, Дh=h/N, where N is the number of increments in to which the potential
drop is divided, it follows that Дq=Kh/N.
 The total flow through a unit width of the dam is therefore:.
Where N’ is the number
q  N ' q  N ' Kh / N of spaces between the
flow lines
Earthfill Dams
Pore pressure
 The air-water mixture in the
voids creates a pore pressure
that reduces the contact
pressure between soil particles.

 Under steady-state seepage

conditions the pore pressure
head at any point in the dam is
equal to the hydrostatic head
due to water in the reservoir
less the head loss in seepage
through the dam to that point
 The pore pressure distribution under steady state seepage conditions
can be found from flow net.
Earthfill Dams
Slope stability

 The usual failure of an earth embankment consists of the sliding of a

large mass of soil along a curved surface.
 The location of the center of the failure arc is assumed.
 The earth mass is divided into a number of vertical segments and the
weight of each segment is calculated. The weight forces are assumed
to act through the center of mass of the respective segments.
 The forces acting on the sliding mass as a whole as well as the forces
acting on each slice must satisfy equilibrium.
 In its most approximate form, the method of slices (Swedish slip circle
method) sets the forces acting on the sides of each slice equal to
zero.
 The moment tending to rotate the soil mass about point O is:

M  Wx Where W is the weight and x is the

moment arm of the individual
segments
Earthfill Dams
Slope stability
 The tangential shear stress acting along the failure arc creating a
resisting moment Mr is given by:

Mr   Ss( L)r
Where Ss is the shear strength of
the soil, ДL the length of the
failure arc for a segment, and r
the radius of the failure arc.

 The shearing strength Ss is given by Coulomb’s equation:

Ss  c   tan  Where c is the cohesion, Φ the

angle of internal friction, and σ
the effective contact pressure
between soil particles along the
failure arc.
Earthfill Dams
Slope stability
 Free body diagram of segment:

W cos    ( L)  uw ( L)

W cos
  uw
L
Where θ is the sliding angle of the
slice, and uw is the pore pressure.

 Cohesion is a function of the soil material and its moisture content,

and for clays it ranges from about 100 to 1200 psf (5 to 60 kN/m2).
Cohesion for sand is negligible.
 The angle of internal friction is usually between 5o and 20o for clay,
while for sand it is about 30o.
Earthfill Dams
Slope stability
 For the stability analysis of the earthfill dam, several possible failure
arcs should be tested to find the one with the minimum factor of
safety to assure that the dam and its foundation are stable.

 The factor of safety along an assumed arc is the ratio of the

clockwise moments divided by the counterclockwise moments.

 This method generally gives conservative estimates for the

computed factor of safety. More detailed procedures include
side forces on the individual slices and also non-circular sliding
surfaces.
 Methods of increasing stability:
1. Provide broad base of dam (with outer shell coarse material)
2. Provide DS facing of coarse material at toe
3. A rock US facing to assist in water drain during rapid drawdown
4. Make US face slope less steep than that of DS face
Earthfill Dams
Sample Problem:
A dam 75 ft high is to be constructed from a silt that, when
compacted at optimum moisture, has a specific weight δ=120
pcf, cohesion c= 400 psf, angle of internal friction =26o, and a
coefficient of permeability of 0.48 ft/day. A cross section of the
proposed design and data on the foundation material is given in
the figure. The top width is chosen to be 25 ft and a 10-ft berm will
be located at mid height on both faces. Side slopes of 1 on 2.1 are
proposed for both faces. The overall base width is 381 ft. Check this
proposal for seepage and embankment stability.
Earthfill Dams
Solution:

Given the flow net for the section can be represented above. The
total seepage is:

q  N ' q  N ' Kh / N
q  3 / 20 x 0.48 x 75 = 5.4 ft 3 /day per foot of width
The computations for embankment stability are tabulated as
follows:
Earthfill Dams
Solution:

The factor of safety for the slip circle shown is 36, 430/23, 670 = 1.54,
which is adequate. Other circles should be checked.
3 3 3 3
Segment W (x10 lb) x (ft) M=Wx (x10 ft.lb) Wcos θ (x 10 lb) ΔL (ft) Wcos θ/ΔL Uw σ σtan Φ Ss = c + σtan Mr = Ss(ΔL) r (x10 ft.lb)
1 73 94 6850 45 58 0.78 0.6 0.18 90 490 3560
2 92 74 6800 71 29 2.44 2 0.44 210 610 2210
3 168 46 7730 156 36 4.33 - 4.33 910 1960 8800
4 143 16 2290 141 33 4.27 - 4.27 900 1950 8050
5 86 14 -1200 85 33 2.57 - 2.57 540 1590 6560
6 25 40 -1000 23 34 0.68 - 0.68 140 1190 5050
Total 21470 34230
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams

5. Slope protection
UPSTREAM Face
For protecting the upstream slope from deterioration and damage from wave
action, the slope is covered with different protective material (rock riprap, stone
pitching, concrete (reinforced), steel plates, brick tile pavement).
DOWNSTREAM Face
One of the cheapest, simple and effective methods of protecting the
downstream from rainfall and wind action is by planting green grass (turfs) on
the slope.
Earthfill Dams
Design elements of earthfill dams

6. Geotextiles and Geomembranes

A geotextile is a porous fabric of synthetic fibers while a geomembrane is
impervious. They are made of polymers, which do not degrade when
embedded in soil.
Main purposes for earthfill dam design:
o Separation
o Drainage
o Filtration
o Reinforcement
Rockfill Dams
A rockfill dam is a type of embankment dam in which rocks serve as
the main structural element. There are two types of rock-fill dams:
impervious face and ; impervious earth core.
Rockfill Dams
Impervious Face

o The rock fill supports the membrane and the water load
o Dense fill with well-graded rocks (stones ands cobbles) is best
o Membrane is RC with expansion joints at 10 m interval
o Slab thickness is 15-45 cm with greater thickness near base
o Subject to considerable cracking of the membrane
Rockfill Dams
Impervious Earth Core

o An impervious clay core is placed in the center of the embankment

o Transition zone should be well-graded
o Advances in granular material knowledge led to improved design
o High resistance to earthquake loads
o The face slopes (1:1.3 or 1.4) are more steep than earthfill dams
o Foundation requirements are more rigid
Dam failure and safety
Austin Dam Failure
Dam failure and safety
Malpasset Dam Failure
Dam failure and safety
Vaoint Dam Failure
Dam failure and safety
San Fernando Dam Failure
Dam failure and safety
Facts
o 1/3 of all dam failures is caused by inadequate spillway capacity
- Machhu II Dam & Nanaksagar Dam, India; Warren Dam, Australia
o 1/3 attributed to foundation failure
- Austin Dam, Texas USA; Malpasset Dam, France
o 1/3 due to improper design/construction and poor maintenance
- Vaiont Dam, Italy; San Fernando Dam, LA USA
o Proper design & construction, sound materials, maintenance monitoring
o Crest movements, embankment deformations, unusual seepages
o Piezometers for embankment dams; stress-strain meters for concrete-type
Rehabilitation of Dams
Facts
o Excess downstream toe seepage
-Impermeable blanket of clay or bentonite at dam heel
-Geomembrane, cutoff wall or grouting of the foundation
-Enlargement of toe drain, impervious US face blanket for embankment dams
o Deformation of crest or bulging of embankment
-Extension of embankment using earth or rockfill, RCC
-Enlargement of toe drain
o Erosion, cracking and cavitation damage
-Application of fiber-reinforced concrete