Introduction * Flow of water under gravitational forces under hydraulic gradient i.e. from a point of high head to a point of low head in a permeable medium is known as seepage. * The pressure that is exerted on the soil due to the seepage of water is called the seepage force or pressure.Two Dimensional Flow — Laplace . Equation Assumptions: * The flow is two-dimensional * Water and soil are incompressible (No volume change occurs) * Soil is homogeneous (coefficient of permeability is constant everywhere in the soil medium) Soil is isotropic. (coefficient of permeability is same in all direction) * The soil is fully saturated * The flow is steady, i.e. flow conditions do not change with time * Darcy’s law is valid. (flow is laminar) Two Dimensional Flow — Laplace Equation...... sLet us consider an element of soil of size dx, dz through which flow is taking place (fig) and unit thickness perpendicular to plane of figure. The V, and V, be the velocity components at entry in x and z directions. The corresponding velocity components at exit will be av, a sie V+ ax 5, ox t OV, Vi.+— hz 4 | | yr dee z é % 7 te in xand z direction respectively t % Soil element with two-dimensional flow.Two Dimensional Flow — Laplace Equation......... . * For a perfectly incompressible liquid, the volume of voids occupied by water is constant; the quantity of water which enters the element is equal to the quantity of water that leaves the element. Therefore, 3 a v,.dz+v,dx=(v,+ vs .dx).dz+(v, + oe .dz).dx Ox Oz On simplifying (on 4 de de=0 a Oz Two Dimensional Flow — Laplace Eauation.......... + Is the continuity ;_ % 4; _ & equation for the ~ ex” 5 & two dimensional The minus indicates thatthe head decreasesin the direction of flow flow. ah + Let h be the total %» =—A-3 head at any point. The horizontal and vertical components of the hydraulic gradient are, respectively, ah From Darey’s Law, Then continuity equation becomes,Two Dimensional Flow — Laplace Equation......... Is the Laplace equationinterms of h, Sometimes the Laplace equationis represented in tenns of velocity potential, given by p=—-kh Substituting the continuity equation, ext is the Laplace equationintemns of the potential. Two Dimensional Flow — Laplace Equation......... * The equation represents two sets of curves intersection orthogonally to each other. * The curve of one set represents the flow lines or lines along which the flow take place and the other represents the equipotential lines or @ lines along which the potential (B) or total head (h) is constant. * The graphical representation of the Laplace equations is, therefore, a flow net.Flow nets, their characteristics and applications Equipotential Drop Equipotential Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ... - flow nets * Acombination of a number of flow lines and equipotential lines is called a flow net. * Flow nets are a pictorial method of studying the path of the moving water. In moving between two points, water tends to travel by the shortest path. * If changes in direction occur, the changes take place along smooth curved paths. * The flow lines and equipotential lines together form the flow net and are used to determine the quantities and other effects of flow through soils.Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ............ . CHARACTERISTICS/PROPERTIES OF FLOW NETS 1. Flow and equipotential lines are smooth curves. 2. Flow lines and equipotential lines meet at right angles to each other. 3. No two flow lines cross each other. 4. No two equipotential lines cross each other. 5. An equipotential line is a line joining points with the same head. Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ... - CHARACTERISTICS/PROPERTIES OF FLOW NETS 6. No two flow or equipotential lines start from the same point. 7. The rate of flow through each flow channel is same. 8. The difference in head between two equipotential lines is called the potential drop or head loss (Ah). 9. Each field is an approximately square and in a well constructed flow net one should be able to draw a circle in a field touching all four sides. 10.The head drop will be the same between successive equipotentialsFlow nets, their characteristics and applications ... Boundary conditions Waterlevel quipotential lines S “S\riow Lines ZI Impervious ayer Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ... Boundary conditions * The upstream and downstream surfaces of the permeable layer (lines ab and fg) are equipotential lines. * Because ab and fg are equipotential lines, all the flow lines intersect them at right angles. * The boundary of the impervious layer—that is, line xy—is a flow line, and so is the surface of the impervious sheet pile, line bef. * The equipotential lines intersect bef and xy at right angles.Flow nets, their characteristics and applications . CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS To construct a flow net + Make a two-dimensional scale drawing of the problem under consideration (Figure 7.4 a.) + Determine or specify the boundary conditions. In fig 7.4, the upstream bed level ab and downstream bed level ef represent the potential line. The first flow line is bede. The last flow line is indicated by the impervious stratum xy. (Figure 7.4. b) + Start trial sketching of flow lines and equipotentials lines, following the properties of flow nets explain above. + Draw a first trial flow line by smooth curves adjacent to the boundary line. The line must be orthogonal to the upstream and downstream ab and ef. (Figure 7.4 ¢) + Project the equipotentials beyond the first flow channel, which gives an indication of the size of the squares in the next flow channel. (Figure 7.4. d) + Try to make the flow net consist of curvilinear "squares", ie., the boxes in the flow net may have curving sides, but the midline lengths of the "square" should be approximately equal. (arrows inside square in diagram below). Keep sketching and refining until you have a good set of "squares" which satisfies the boundary conditions. Flow nets, their characteristics and applications . CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS To construct a flow net:. + Determine the position of the next flow line; draw this line as a smooth curve and complete the squares in the flow channel formed. (Figure 7.4. e) * Project the equipotentials and repeat the procedure until the flow net is completed. (Figure 7.4. f) + Itis not necessary that the last flow channel should make complete squares. The flow fields in the last channel may be approximate rectangles with the same length to width ratio. + If the first trial is chosen properly, all other satisfies all the necessary conditions. Otherwise, the last drawn flow line will cross the bottom boundary flow line, indicating that the trial line chosen is incorrect and needs modification. + In such a case, a second trial line should be chosen and the procedure repeated.Flow nets, their characteristics and applications CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS Example of flow net construction... Waterlevel “s Concrete dar ~~ Waterlevel he & a | a - el i ¢ 4 permeable Layer Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ... CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS Example of flow net construction... Waterlevel SS Concrete dam ) waterlevel he 7 2 " a — | ‘ : 4 Equipotential | y Impermeable LayerFlow nets, their characteristics and applications ............ . CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS Example of flow net construction... Impermeable Layer Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ... CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS Example of flow net construction... Waterlevel Concrete dam Wateriavél Impermeable LayerFlow nets, their characteristics and applications ............ . CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS Example of flow net construction... werent | Weterlevel he d i. Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ... - CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS Example of flow net construction... Water level Seoeretevony waterlevel hy Impermeable LayerFlow nets, their characteristics and applications ............ CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS typical flow net beneath the dam without any Typical illustration of flow net aan pe (Lambe and R.V. Whitman (1979) Concrete dam Waterleel he ~ ft hy Troma aer Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ... - CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS Typical illustration of flow net typical flow net for the flow around a sheet pile wallFlow nets, their characteristics and applications CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS Typical illustration of flow net ‘Typical flow net for the flow beneath the dam with heel cutoff wall (Lambe and R.V. Whiteman (1979)) Flow nets, their characteristics and applications CONSTRUCTION OF FLOW NETS Typical illustration of flow net ‘Typical flow net for the flow beneath the dam with toe cutoff wall (Lambe and R.V. Whiteman (1979))Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ... APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS Application of flow nets are to determine 1. Seepage discharge N Seepage pressure w Hydrostatic pressure = Exit gradient Flow nets, their characteristics and applications ... APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * 1 Determination of seepage dischargeFlow nets, their characterist! fl applications .......... APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * 1 Determination of seepage discharge Let us consider a field indicated by a shaded area in figure let the length and breadth of the field be | and b respectively. With refrence to figure following terms may be defined in order to estimate quantity of seepage. Ng= Number of equipotential drops N; = Number of flow channels ‘Aq = flow through one flow channel Ah = head loss between two adjacent equipotential lines: Hydraulic gradient: Ah Flow nets, their characterist | applications ............. APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * 1 Determination of seepage discharge Darcy's law for the discharge through any block such as shaded field per unit length of the section may be written as A Ah b An= Ag = ki(b*1) =k = b = kA N, 4 BOND RG 7 h= total head causing flow ‘ From above equations a \ hbo Aq=k— 2 N, 1applications ............ .| APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * 1 Determination of seepage discharge Flow nets, their characterist | | fl If we make a square field, i.e. =b and the discharge becomes h Ag =k — Nu Total discharge, , N; q=Ag.N, =kh. Na =~knwt This is required expression for the given qaKu N. seepage discharge if a flow net diagram is a available. Water level Steatpiae Water level Impervious LayerFlow nets, their characteristics and applications....... APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * 2 Determination of seepage pressure at a point Flow nets are useful in the determination of the seepage pressure at any point along the flow path. Consider the point P in Fig. 7.9. Let hp be the piezometric head acting on point P. total head at point P,h,, A= hon ‘Where nis the number ofthe equipotential drops upto P. Seepage pressure at apoint Pis given by where jp=10 KNim, Flow nets, their characteristics and applications.. APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * 3 Determination of Hydrostatic pressure at a point + The difference in head between the upstream and downstream water levels is h. The pressure at any point is equal to the total head minus the elevation head. Hydrostatic head is given by, + h,=h,-Z, — where h,, = pressure head at that point . h,= total head at that point = Elevation head at that point, Z will have positive value when the point is above datum and negative value when it is below datum. sua hy ty + To determine the hydrostatic pressure at point P in figure 7.9 for a sheet pile, datum is selected at the level of downstrea water surface. The hydrostatic pressure so uehy y= (Ne OZ, ))- Yw + us (hytZ,) WwFlow nets, their characteristics and applications....... APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * 4 Determination of Exit gradient The exit gradientis given by ; = Ah where Ah= head loss between two adjacent equipotential lines Ah= i Nz | l=length of flow field. Flow nets, their characteristics and applications....... APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * uplift pressure ImperviousFlow nets, their characteristics and applications....... APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * uplift pressure Permeable impervious Flow nets, their characteristics and applications....... APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * uplift pressure h Head loss per drop, At’ = we There will be equal drops of head between the equipotential lines that meet the dam as the water flows along the side and base of the dam as shown in the figure. A piezometer tube at point a (coinciding with the corner of the dam in the figure) gives a pressure head h,. Now the uplift pressure at point a may be expressed as ua=h, 7, =(h,+D—Ah)y,, Similarly, the uplift pressure at any other point, say d, may be estimated from the expression =(h,+D—n,.Ah).y,,Flow nets, their characteristics and applications....... APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * computation of seepage force Flow line Equipotential fine Consider the cubical element as shown shaded in Fig. with all the sides equal to /. Let h,, be the piezometric head acting on the face 12 and h,, on face 34. F, and F, be the forces exerted by the seeping water respectively on the upstream and downstream faces of the element. Then Flow nets, their characteristics ant APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * computation of seepage force The total force on face 34=Fi = a7.y,, tay The total force on face 12 =Fa= a’.y,,,3 The differential force acting on the element is FLRL=F= ay, ashy) Since (hy; —hy2) is the head drop Ah, we can write, 2 Ah Ah Fea.y,bn= a Vn — = a Yul Where 1= > ishydrnlic radiont a FesFlow nets, their characteristics ant APPLICATION OF FLOW NETS * computation of seepage force where a? is the volume of the element. The force per unit volume of the element is, therefore, Fo = Vy This force exerts a drag on the element known as the seepage force. It has the dimension of unit weight, and at any point its line of action is tangent to the flow line. The seepage pressure is a very important factor in the stability analysis of earth slopes. SEEPAGE THROUGH ANISOTROPIC CONDITION * In actual practice the soil deposits have soil strata with different permeability values. * The average permeability of the deposit parallel to stratification is appreciably greater than that normal to the stratification mostly in Sedimentary deposits and in most earth embankments. * Where as in lose deposits vertical permeability is greater than the horizontal permeability.mn h h For two-dimensional flow problems, k, Sr+k Z ‘Whore kke~ Karem and ks~ Kein This equation can be rewritten as eh % a a mee Equation 7. 26) Equation 7,21 ‘Which is once again the Laplace’s equation in x, and. SEEPAGE THROUGH ANISOTROPIC CONDITION This Equation indicates that for anisoopie soils we can use the procedure for flow net sketching desaibed for isotropic soils by scaling the x distance by, ‘That is, we must draw the stricture and flow domain by FF. voutpying the horizontal distances by | = wile Keesng the veical unchanged inthe wansfomned section ‘The flow net on the transformed section will have orthogonal intersections of flow lines andl equipotental lines ‘with all its flelds being elementary squares. ‘The quantity of flow in both cases must be equal. If AH is the head loss across the field. k, AH (where ‘Temsformed section: q, =k, = ky Ab Natural Section: @,, = Since =a k, KX, Effective penneabilitySEEPAGE THROUGH ANISOTROPIC CONDITION ma «—1— tt Flow Flow —} — Natural scale Transformed scale Flow net construction of anisotropic soil ((b) flow net redrawn to normal scale a) flow net drawn to transformed scale SEEPAGE THROUGH EARTH DAM ON AN IMPERVIOUS BASE Phreatic line (seepage line) Cc Basic parabola Discharge face Basic parabola and the phreatic line for a homogeneous earth dam in an impervious baseSEEPAGE THROUGH EARTH DAM ON AN IMPERVIOUS BASE Discharge takes place into a horizontal filter inside the downstream toe Impermesblebase le-5 epee e—— SEEPAGE THROUGH EARTH DAM ON AN II Discharge takes place into a horizontal filter i downstream toeSEEPAGE THROUGH EARTH DAM ON AN II Discharge takes place into a horizontal filter i downstream toe the boundary lines of such an ideal flow nét’are * The upstream face JC, an equipotential line, is a p=-kh. * The downstream discharge face FG, an equipotential line, is horizontal. ® = 0 * FC, the phreatic line, is a parabola is the flow line. Y =O * JG, the bottom flow line, is horizontal.p=q SEEPAGE THROUGH EARTH DAM ON AN IMPERVIOUS BASE Discharge takes place into a horizontal filter inside the downstream toe The following are the steps in the graphical determination of the top flow line: + Locate the point B, using BC= 0.3 (AC). B will be the starting point of the Kozeny parabola. + With B as centre and BG as radius, draw an arc to cut the water surface (extended) in K. The vertical through K is the directrix. Let this meet the bottom surface of the dam in | + The vertex F of the parabola is located midway between G and I. * For locating the intermediate points on the parabola the principle that it must be equidistant from the focus and the directrix will be used. For example, at any distance x from G, draw a vertical and measure IM. With G as center and IM as radius, draw an arc to cut the vertical through M in P, which is the required point on the parabola. + Join all such points to get the base parabola. The portion of the top flow line from Cis sketched in such that it starts perpendicular to CJ, which is the boundary equipotential and meets the remaining part of the parabola tangentially without any kink. The base parabola meets the filter perpendicularly at the vertex FSEEPAGE THROUGH EARTH DAM ON AN IMPERVIOUS BASE Discharge takes place into a horizontal filter inside the downstream toe * The following analytical approach also may be used: * With the origin of co-ordinates at the focus [Fig] PG= IM This is the equation to the parabola. Analytically X, may be got by substituting the coordinates of B (d, H) in Eq x _Nd? +H? -d 2 SEEPAGE THROUGH EARTH DAM ON AN IMPERVIOUS BASE Discharge takes place into a horizontal filter inside the downstream toe * For different values of x, z may be calculated and the parabola drawn. The corrections at the entry may then be incorporated. * The expression for rate of seepage may be got analytically as follows: q=kiA= k.—.z For unit length of the dam. a, But, 2 = 4/4.0.2, +44," from equation 7.22 2x,Failure due to piping and and its prevention * Backward-erosion piping failure, * Heave piping failure Failure due to piping and and its prevention * Backward-erosion piping failure, Phase 4: widening of pipe f Phase 2: backward erosion initiation Phase 5: failure of the levee Phase 3: backward erosion progression Phase 6: breakthroughFailure due to piping and and its prevention Heave piping failure Failure due to piping and and its prevention Heave piping failure Failure due to heave piping occurs when the uplift forces of seepage exceed the downward forces due to the submerged weight of the soil on the downstream side of a hydraulic structure. According to Terzaghi, heave piping generally occurs within a distance of about D/2 from the sheet pile, where D is the depth of soil above the level of instability. For different assumed values of D, the average seepage pressure over different width D/2 measured from the sheet piling can be calculated from the flow net. Piping will occur when seepage pressure equals or exceeds the intensity of pressure due to the submerged weight of the overlying soil.Failure due to piping and and its prevention * The average uplift pressure on the base of prism aocd is equal to y,,h, The total uplift force per unit length of wall is 1 U==y,.h,D 37 a * The submerged weight of the prism aocd is W=57D* * Where y,, is the submerged unit weight of the material. The factor of safety with respect to piping can therefore be expressed as F =F VD “U7, Ay Failure due to piping and and its prevention PREVENTION OF PIPING FAILURE * Increasing the path of percolation * The hydraulic gradient depends upon the path of percolation. If the length of the path is increased, the exit gradient will decrease to a safe value. * Reducing seepage Providing Protective filter * Loaded filterFailure due to piping and and its prevention Protective Filter The four main requirements (U.S.B.R. 1974) for a protective filter are: * The filter material should be more pervious than the base material in order that no hydraulic pressure will build up to disrupt the filter and adjacent structures. * The voids of the in place filter material must be small enough to prevent base material particles from penetrating the filter and causing clogging and failure of the protective filter system. * The layer of the protective filter must be sufficiently thick to provide a good distribution of all particle sizes throughout the filter and also to provide adequate insulation for the base material where frost action is involved. * Filter material particles must be prevented from movement into the drainage pipes by providing sufficiently small slot openings or perforations, or additional coarser filter zones if necessary. Failure due to piping and and its prevention Protective Filter Filter materials are selected so as to have grain sizes that satisfy certain requirements. The filter specifications are givea below: D,,( filter’) es D,,( protected «material No significant invasion of particles from the protected soil tothe filter shall takeplace é D,( filter) ex D,;(protected - material) Sufficient head lost in flow though the filters without build-up of seepage pressure Dag ( filter ) —_Paolfilter) __ ag Da(protected » material) Additional guide forthe selection of filter material Das, Dee, Das refer to the particle sizes from the grain size distribution curves.