STABILITY OF EARTH DAM SLOPES

 There are three conditions for which the stability analysis of an earth
dam is to be carried out. These are the ‘end of construction’ , ‘steady
seepage’ , and ‘sudden drawdown’ conditions.

Steady seepage stability

 The steady seepage condition under full reservoir is critical for the
downstream slope, since the seepage forces add to the gravity forces in
causing conditions of instability.

 On the other hand, relative to the upstream slope, the seepage forces
act inward and help keeping the slope stable.

 The stability analysis is usually carried out by the effective stress

method. The pore water pressures are determined from the flow net
drawn for steady seepage condition.
 In the method of slices, the combination of saturated weight of the
soil and the boundary pore water pressures acting over the slice is
considered.

 Once the flow net is drawn, the boundary pore water pressures acting
normally on the vertical sides of the slice and on the base of the slice
(part of the assumed slip circle) can be determined.

 In the simplified analysis, both the effective and normal forces acting
on the sides of the slice are assumed to balance out and therefore not
considered.

 Only the boundary pore water pressure acting normal to the base of
the slice is considered along with the downward acting total weight of
the slice.
 The forces acting on the typical slice are shown Fig. 1. The top flow
line passes through the slice.

 The pore pressure head, hw At A , the centre of the base of the slice, is
equal to difference in elevation between point A and the point where
the equipotential line passing through A intersects the top flow line
(point B in Fig.1).

 This follows the fact that all points on the top flow line are at
atmospheric pressure.

 This enables the determination of the resultant pore water pressure

UB at the base of the slice.

 This force is normal to the base and therefore does not contribute to
the driving moment.
Fig.1 Forces acting on a slice-steady seepage case
 The total weight of the slice W is due to the bulk unit weight of the
soil above the top flow line and saturated unit weight below it

 Resolving W into its normal and tangential components N and T and

considering the entire slip surface, the factor of safety can be
expressed as:
𝑐 ′ 𝐿+ 𝑁−𝑈 𝑡𝑎𝑛
F= Eq.1 (a)
𝑇

 In the computation of stability, it would be better to plot the variation

of pore water pressure all along the slip circle in directions normal to
the slip circle.

 U value can than be obtained by multiplying the area of the pore

pressure distribution diagram with the unit weight of water.
 For a submerged slope, the weight of the slice is calculated by using
submerged unit weight for the part of the slice below the top flow line
and bulk unit weight for the upper part.

 If pressure head at A is equal to hw ,pore pressure ratio ru , is defined

as the ratio of pore pressure u (= hww ) to the total stress at A (=h).
That is, ru = hww / h. E

 Equation 1(a) can be written in another way in terms of W and ru in

the form:
1
F=  𝑐 ′ 𝐿 + 𝑊 𝑐𝑜𝑠 − ru𝑠𝑒𝑐 𝑡𝑎𝑛′ Eq.1(b)
𝑊 sin 
 SUDDEN DRAWDOWN STABILITY
 It is assumed that the reservoir has been maintained at a high level for a
sufficiently long time so that the fill material of the dam is fully
saturated and steady seepage established.

 If the reservoir is drawn down at this stage, the direction of flow is

reserved, causing instability in the upstream slope of the earth dam.

 The ‘instantaneous’ drawdown is a hypothetical condition that is

assumed and pore pressure along the sliding surface are determined by
drawing the ‘instantaneous’ flow net.

 The most critical condition of sudden drawdown means that while the
water pressure acting on the upstream slope at ‘full reservoir’ condition
is removed, there is no appreciable change in water content of the
saturated soil within the embankment.
 The saturated weight of the slope produces the shearing stresses while
the shearing resistance is decreased considerably because of the
development of the pore water pressure which do not dissipate rapidly.

 If the flow net corresponding to instantaneous drawdown is drawn, the

pore water pressure distribution along the trail slip surface can be
worked out and the stability analysis completed, as for the ‘steady
seepage’ case.

 As time elapses, pore pressure gradually dissipate and the stability

increases.

 An approximate procedure to compute the factor of safety is by

considering the saturated unit weight for calculating the actuating forces
and submerged unit weight for calculated the resisting forces.

 Below the drawdown level, however, the submerged unit weight is to be

used for calculating the driving as well as the resisting forces.
 STABILITY DURING AND AT THE END OF
CONSTRUCTION
 An embankment dam is normally compacted at 80 to 90 per cent
saturation, that is 80 to 90% of the pore space is filled by water and the
rest by air bubbles.

 The compression of this water air pore fluid under increasing load of
embankment causes the build up of pore pressure in fine – grained soils.

 The magnitude of pore pressure depends on several factors such as the

placement water content, compressibility, and permeability of the fill
material and rate of construction.

 Thus, the prediction of the pore pressures during the design stage is
rather difficult, but as the pore pressures directly affect the shear
strength of a soil, an estimation of the construction pore pressures has to
be made in order that a stability analysis be carried out.
 One of the methods of estimating the pore pressure based on the results
of laboratory tests, is given by Hilf (1984) .

 Hilf computed the pore pressures from consideration of consolidation

under the weight of the overlying fill.

 The consolidation test is used to determine the compression behaviour

of the partially saturated fill material.

 Assuming that the pressure in the pore water and pore air are always
equal and that no dissipation of pore pressure occurs due to drainage, a
decrease in embankment volume is caused by the compression of air and
its passing into solution in the pore water.
 If u is the induced pore air pressure, according to Hilf,

u=
𝑝
0  Eq.2
𝑉𝑎 +𝐻𝑉𝑤 −
 Where
𝑝0 = pressure of pore air before consolidation( absolute
atmospheric pressure)
 = embankment compression as a proportion of original
embankment volume.
𝑉𝑎 = volume of free air in soil pores present in unit volume of
embankment soil before start of consolidation.
𝑉𝑤 = volume of pore water present in unit volume of embankment
soil.
H𝑉𝑤 = volume of dissolved air in volume 𝑉𝑤 of water,
H = Henry’s constant, equal to 0.02
 For no drainage,  cannot be greater than 𝑉𝑎 . When  = 𝑉𝑎 , the entire
air goes into solution and the soil becomes saturated.

 The pore pressure at which this occurs is given by

ℎ0𝑉𝑎
𝑢𝑠𝑎𝑡 = Eq.3
𝐻𝑉𝑤

 A graph is plotted between effective stress  and e/(1+ 𝑒0 ) from the

results of a consolidation test.

 e is the change in void ratio and 𝑒0 the initial void ratio of the
specimen; e/(1+ 𝑒0 ) corresponds to .

 For different selected values of e/(1+ 𝑒0 ) or , the corresponding

values of u are calculated from Eq.2.
 The range of values of selected for e/(1+ 𝑒0 ) are from zero to the
maximum values 𝑉𝑎 if complete saturation occurs within the range of
stress being considered.

 The increments of e/(1+ 𝑒0 ) are selected approximately equal.

 Where full saturation does not occur under the range of effective stress
being considered, the range of e/(1+ 𝑒0 ) values are taken from zero to
its value corresponding to the maximum stress considered.

 For the various value of e/(1+ 𝑒0 ) considered, the effective stress 

values are noted from the consolidation test plot and pore pressure
values u already calculated, added to these values to obtain the total
stress values .

 A graph is now plotted between  and u.

 In the method of slices, the total vertical stress  at the base of each slice
is calculated using the bulk unit weight of the soil.

 The corresponding value of pore pressure u is taken from the  versus u

plot obtained earlier. The pore pressure acts normally to the slip surface
at all points.

 The factor of safety is then calculated using Eq.1.The factor of safety

improves as the construction pore pressure gradually dissipate with time.

Suggested Values of Factors of saftey

 Each case has to be treated separately, depending on the economics of
the problem, accuracy of soil parameters and the special requirements of
the problem. However, as a general guide, the following values may be
used:
End of construction (embankments and cuttings) = 1.30
Steady seepage condition = 1.25
Sudden drawdown condition = 1.20