Environmental Earth Sciences (2019) 78:571

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8405-y

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The 3D analysis and estimation of transient seepage in earth dams

through PLAXIS 3D software: neural network

Case study: Kord-Oliya Dam, Isfahan province, Iran

Mandana Bayat1 · Saeid Eslamian1,2   · Gholamreza Shams3 · Alborz Hajiannia1

Received: 19 September 2018 / Accepted: 5 July 2019 / Published online: 18 September 2019
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
The issue of seepage and its management is essential in earth dams which if exceeded from a certain stage the destruction of
dam is probable. Despite the studies run through consulting engineers, the hydraulic behaviors of both body and foundation
cannot be predicted. To understand the function of such structures, the geotechnical software PLAXIS 3D based on FEM is
applied to determine the transient seepage analysis on the subject earth dam for 1 year. The outputs in downstream drain are
compared with the actual obtained results from seepage at the same points with 15-day intervals for 1 year as an experimental
sample. The obtained data here thorough PLAXIS 3D in addition to available actual seepage, permeability coefficients in x,
y, and z directions, transient head upstream, soil-specific gravity for both the wet and dry conditions, Poisson coefficient, c,
ɸ, and elasticity modulus material are trained through a neural network algorithm. Here, an equation is yield through which
the seepage is calculated in transient head upstream at any point of the subject earth dam. This equation has a great accuracy
of (P value > 0.05), and is applied in calculating the actual seepage of earth dams in critical situations such as earth dam
failure due to piping operation or dam body erosion.

Keywords  Actual seepage · Earth dam · Finite element · Neural network · PLAXIS 3D · Transient seepage

Introduction storage, water navigation, running hydro power plants, and

environment protection. Depending on the topography of the
Construction of different types of dams is a major concern given area, availability of construction materials, river slope,
with state authorities due to: optimize the control and con- material distribution, and economical and political situations
sumption of waters for industrial, agricultural and house- dam constructions is categorized in: concrete, earth, rock
hold, flooding prevention, groundwater recharge, water fill, wooden, rubber, and steel dams.
Due to some reasons such as material availability, rapid
* Saeid Eslamian
construction, and economic factors, earth dam category is
Saeid@cc.iut.ac.ir preferred to others. With respect to the technical measures
Mandana Bayat
in design, construction and project time which are to opti-
mandana.bayat@yahoo.com mize earth dam function and assure stability, the issue of
Gholamreza Shams
seepage and how to control it is the most important issue.
g.shms@eng.sku.ac.ir Seepage is defined as a gradual loss of water through soil
Alborz Hajiannia
layers. Seepage in earth dams lead to their instability, water
alborzhn@yahoo.com lose, and finally environment and human life loss (Lam and
Fredlund 1984). Consequently, seepage analysis and select-
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic ing the most appropriate approaches in its control is vital in
Azad University, Najafabad, Iran
earth dam design. The seepage phenomenon is unavoidable
2
Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran in earth dam construction foundations. Attempts should be
3
Department of Civil Engineering, Shahrekord University, made to control this phenomenon in its scientific sense.
Shahrekord, Iran

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Seepage analysis and control technology are closely
related to the saturated–unsaturated seepage field and have
a strong influence on the safety and engineering aspects
of projects involving rock masses and hydraulic structures
at dam sites (Chen et al. 2008; Unal et al. 2007; Lee et al.
2005). The pore-water pressure within the dam is altered
by the external loading conditions like rapid drawdown of
reservoir water, earthquake loading and raise of water table
caused by infiltration of rainfall. The seepage through an
earthen dam involves saturated and unsaturated flows but
to avoid complexity in solving the non-linear partial differ-
ential equations, the flow in unsaturated zone is neglected
and seepage analysis is carried by constructing the flow net
in which the pore-water pressures beyond the free surface
is taken as zero. In actual conditions, negative pore-water
pressure develops beyond the free surface due to the capil-
larity which leads development to the matrix suction of the
soil (Venkatesh and Karumanchi 2016). The PLAXIS 3D is
a numerical model capable of simulating the real physical
process of water flow through a particulate medium in a
mathematical sense. Seepage in Karkheh dam is assessed
through experimental method and PLAXIS software, then
is compared with the outputs at 95% confidence level and
with no variation in seepage both the cases (Najafpour et al.
2012). An analytical solution for seepage is assessed in earth
dam with central core through PLAXIS software and the
results are compared to the values of analysis thorough solv-
ing the flow network method equation and found no signifi-
cant difference between the two methods (Abd and Senon
2011). Seepage with stability analysis of dams is assessed
through PLAXIS 3D and compared with the obtained
results of the numerical solution of Laplace equation. In
their analysis through PLAXIS 3D software, it is revealed
that the accuracy of PLAXIS 3D software is more than that
of the numerical solution method of Laplace equation (Shi-
vakumar et al. 2015). The effect of pore-water pressure is
assessed in earth dam stability together with some safety
factors thereof (Toromanovic et al. 2016). The seepage for
Kord-Oliya dam is assessed through PLAXIS 2D and is
compared to the actual data and it is found that PLAXIS
2D is of high accuracy in seepage calculation (Bayat et al.
2017). Back analysis based on finite-element model with
case study which is applied to calculate 3D seepage problem
with considering boundary condition, ground water level,
permeability parameters, and natural condition are run (Ren
et al. 2016). The internal erosion of Gouhou rockfill dam
associated with the process water infiltration and hydrologic
condition is simulated by several cases of transient seepage
analyzed (Zhang and Chen 2006).
For modeling a 3D transient seepage in earth dams, there
exist many software applications such as SEEP, PLAXIS,
and FLAC. According to the required initial data, the mod-
eling time and reference to the available findings, the results
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Environmental Earth Sciences (2019) 78:571
of PLAXIS in comparison with the numerical and analytical
solutions of the Laplace equation, laboratory modeling, and
actual data are of high accuracy (Ahmadi et al. 1392).
The focus of this article is to devise an equation to cal-
culate the transient seepage in 3D analysis of earth dam
through as soil-specific gravity for both the wet and dry
conditions, Poisson coefficient, elasticity modulus, material
permeability in x, y, and z directions, c, ɸ and the upstream
water head subject to time parameters.
Materials and methods
The method adopted in this study is of case study. Kord-
Oliya dam is located in Esfahan province, Iran, 60 km west
of the city of Tiran at 50°41′ of eastern longitude and 32°56′
of northern latitude with 1927 m from MSL. The volume
of this dam reservoir is 1.2 Mm3 at normal level of 16 m.
This earth dam is constructed to store water and to recharge
groundwater. This earth dam is referred to as a large dam in
accordance with ICOLD with crest length of 1030 m, foun-
dation height of 18 m, crest width of 6 m with upstream and
downstream slop of 1:3 and free board of 2 m. The cross
section of this earth dam is modelled through PLAXIS 3D
software, Fig. 1.
The geographic setup of this earth dam is located in Zagros
Chain Mountains’ central region. The foundation of the dam is
set on feldspathic shales of Gray Jurassic from second period
covered by Cretaceous Lime. The actual results of seepages
are obtained from the instruments in the downstream are
compared with software simulation results obtained through
PLAXIS 3D. The head in upstream is transient with a gradual
increase from 3 to 16 m in 122 days which then decreases
gradually from 16 to 3 m in 153 days and remains constant
at 3 m for 90 days. The actual values of soil-specific gravity
for both the wet and dry conditions, Poisson coefficient, c,
Fig. 1  Cross sections of Kord-Oliya dam
Environmental Earth Sciences (2019) 78:571 Page 3 of 7  571

Table 1  Materials’ permeability
Location Kx (m/s) Ky (m/s) Kz (m/s)

Foundation 0.0432 0.0086 0.051

Shell 10−5 10−4 1.9 × 10−4
Core 2.5 × 10−5 5 × 10−5 1.8 × 10−5
Cutoff 1.7 × 10−7 2.8 × 10−8 2.38 × 10−7
Drain 10 1.5 10
Filter 2 × 10−1 3.5 × 10−2 2.19 × 10−1

Kx,y,z coefficient of permeability, m/s

ɸ, elasticity modulus and material permeability in x, y, and z

directions are tabulated in Tables 1 and 2.

Assumptions To obtain results with more accuracy, some

assumptions are of concern in this modeling: Fig. 2  Meshing of the Kord-Oliya dam

1. Non-linear analysis of the seepage is available.

2. The cut-off wall thickness in PLAXIS is considered 1 m,
which corresponds the actual thickness.
3. The upstream head flow is transient.
4. The material properties for every component of this
Earth dam like the core, shell, filter and foundation are
assumed the same concerning the elasticity modulus,
soil-specific gravity for both the wet and dry conditions,
Poisson coefficient, c, ɸ and material permeability in x,
ΔVloss = ΔVW + V(evaporation) = 266689.4 m3 .
y and z directions.
By considering the sensitivity analysis in mesh and the
accuracy in calculations and time, the mesh selected is of
fine type about 110000 elements. Consequently, any mesh
smaller or bigger than this would lead to consequences like
non-convergence of software, soil collapse, inaccurate results,
and waste of time. In PLAXIS software, there exist only one
hexahedron mesh model for earth dams, and the meshing of
this earth dam with a total of 110000 elements is shown in
Fig. 2.
The following equations are devised thorough the content
of Table 3:
ΔVW = 122489.4 m3
Table 3  Reservoir total volume
V (total) V (PLAXIS 3D) V (evaporation) V (h = 3 m)
1,200,000 m3 748310.6 m3 144,200 m3 185,000 m3
where ∆VW indicates the difference between the actual water
volume in this earth dam as to the water seepage volume,
evaporation, and the reservoir water volume at h = 3 m,
respectively. According to the comparison of the model with
the actuality up to 15%, difference in the results is accept-
able due to assumptions made as to the measurement of the
initial parameters (e.g., considering the material properties
for different components of the structure such as the core,
filter, foundation, where only one figure is assigned to the
soil-specific gravity for both the wet and dry conditions,
Poisson coefficient, c, ɸ, and elasticity modulus and material
permeability in x, y, and z directions), and simplification of
equations or assumption in the software.

Table 2  Materials’ features Location γsat γdry C ὑ ɸ E

Foundation 16 15 20 0.3 25 10
Shell 19 18 15 0.3 30 30
Core 15 14 25 0.35 20 15
Cutoff 25 24 1400 0.3 50 28,000
Drain 22 21 0 0.3 40 150
Filter 19 18 15 0.3 30 50

E elastic modulus, (Mpa); γdry unit weight of soil, kN/m3; γsat saturated unit weight of soil, kN/m3; C cohe-
sion, kN/m2; φ angle of internal friction in degree; ὑ Poisson coefficient, unitless

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According to Table 3 and the critical water conditions
in Iran, the volume of evaporated water from this res-
ervoir surface is about 12% of the total volume of the
reservoir. This loss through evaporation can be reduced
through suggested methods such as: reservoir covering,
improving underground water charge, selection, and
designing dams in the areas, where the reservoir would
be of the least area and consuming materials such as hexa-
decanol and alike.
The ∆V of loss which is the sum of V (evaporation) and
∆VW together with the fact that Iran is experiencing a seri-
ous water shortage, water per capita in Iran, is 1000 m3, thus,
the ∆Vloss which equals to 23% of total reservoir volume can
be shared among 275 people on annual basis. This 23% loss
in this model is very significant and special care should be
taken in diminishing it; consequently, authorities must focus
on this issue, because this is an almost pilot project which
can be generalized. Prevention of this volume of water loss
from similar earth dams would greatly contribute to dimin-
ishing water crisis in Iran.
The basic equations applied in this analysis
Water movement is saturated at porous medium which is
described by Davis et al. (1992) as follows:
Q = k × i × A, (1)
where Q is the water discharge p/m3/s, K is the hydraulic
conductivity of the soil (soil permeability) p/m/s, A is the
cross-sectional flow p/m2 area, and i is the hydraulic gradient
expressed by the following equation:
i = (dh∕dl), (2)
where i is the length of the movement of water in porous
media unitless, and h is the water head p/m. Accordingly,
l is length of the flow line p/m. The general equation for
the nonhomogeneous, anisotropic soil types, and the stand-
ard H-based Richardson’s equation is used to determine the
seepage and is expressed as follows (Richardson and Fry
1922):
( ) ( )
( )
𝜕 𝜕h 𝜕 𝜕h 𝜕 𝜕h 𝜕𝜃
− kx + − ky + − kz = ,
𝜕x 𝜕x 𝜕y 𝜕y 𝜕z 𝜕z 𝜕t
(3)
where h is the pressure head p/m and Kz, Ky, and Kx are the
hydraulic conductivity of the soil in the vertical direction (z),
longitudinal (x), and transverse (y) directions p/m/s, respec-
tively. The symbol θ is the volumetric moisture content of
the soil mass unitless.
In steady-state flow conditions for the saturated soil,
the change in moisture content with respect to time is
zero, while in this modeling, the flow in upstream is tran-
sient and time is important in calculation.
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Environmental Earth Sciences (2019) 78:571
There exist several manners to solve the Laplace
equation
Although the laboratory, graphical, experimental, mathe-
matical, and numerical methods are adopted in solving this
equation, no exact answer is yield for seepage control, thus,
all findings are in approximation. Each one of these meth-
ods is subject to the type of simplification, which reduce
the accuracy of these methods. Each one of these methods
has its own restrictions, which are low in numerical meth-
ods. Due to the complexity of analytical methods in solving
the seepage problems and the lack of methods for 3D prob-
lems, the numerical methods contribute merely to practical
solution. The numerical solutions of Laplace’s equation are
solved through methods such as: finite difference, finite vol-
ume, finite element, boundary element, and natural element.
Among these, the (FEM) is more appropriate for solving
this problem because of its compatibility with the problem
conditions.
Solving the Laplace equation through FEM
FEM is one of the most applied methods in numerical solu-
tion in differential equations, such as seepage equation
which is vastly applied in engineering problems. The solu-
tion domain is divided into a finite number of sub domains.
The finite elements through FEM, where variation concepts
are applied to construct an approximation of the solution
over the collection of finite elements. The matrix form of
the seepage equation is presented as follows:
[k]{H} + [M]{H}t = {Q}. (4)
These matrices are computed through the numerical
integration. By applying the boundary conditions and solv-
ing the system of equations, the pressure head values are
obtained at the predetermined points. After H is calculated,
the flow lines and potential lines are drawn and water dis-
charge value is calculated.
In this study, the subject earth dam is analyzed through
Plaxis 3D for transient seepage flow and the results obtained
from PLAXIS 3D are extracted in downstream for every
15-day intervals for 1 year. The findings here are of the state
when reservoir head is transient at upstream. The findings of
every 15-day period together with the seepage are applied
with actual seepage data in the same period and fed into
neural network.
Validation PLAXIS 3D software
The results of the PLAXIS 3D software and actual seepage
data from the subject earth dam are bar charted in Fig. 3. These
results are validated through statistical analysis in SPSS and
Environmental Earth Sciences (2019) 78:571 Page 5 of 7  571

The weighted inputs’ functions consist of: transient head

in upstream, the actual data of transient seepage and materi-
als features such as soil-specific gravity for two wet and dry
conditions, Poisson coefficient, elasticity modulus, c, ɸ, or
material permeability in x, y, z directions. By examining vari-
ous parameters mentioned in different neural networks, the
effective parameters are selected (they have the closest answer
to the actual condition) and target function transient seepage
is obtained through PLAXIS 3D.
In this study, a non-linear equation is formed between these
functions. In this newly proposed network, two of the layers of
Tansig and Purelin are applied. A change in neuron count and
optimization in the network, different networks, are developed
to make obtaining the least error square and the highest cor-
relation coefficient feasible. The features of these networks are
tabulated in Table 4.
Regarding the chosen functions in this model network,
Eq. (5) can be extracted for any given input:
( )
Target = purelin (iw ∗ tansig iw ∗ input + b1 + b2 ,
(5)
where W is the weights and b is the bias amount for input
and target function.

Data analysis

The optimal network is of high instructional precision, high

Fig. 3  Results of the PLAXIS 3D and actual seepage
correlation, and low error square. In this article, 80% of raw
data are applied as instructional data to train the network,
Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.472, indicating a high effi- where the input data matrix is 600 (6*100), consisting of tran-
ciency of the software for calculating seepage. The obtained P sient head in upstream, the actual data of transient seepage and
value, which is acceptable and accurate P value, indicates that materials features such as soil-specific gravity for both the two
there exists a difference due to the geological material behav- wet and dry conditions, Poisson coefficient, elasticity modulus,
ior and general assumptions (the X-axis represents a 15-day c, ɸ, or material permeability in x, y, and z directions, where
interval. The Y-axis represents the actual measured seepage, the main parameters’ are soil-specific gravity for wet condi-
and the seepage obtained both p/m3/s from PLAXIS software). tion, ɸ, elasticity modulus, transient head in upstream, and the
The output data of limited component analysis are divided actual data of transient seepage. The target matrix is 1*100
in two groups and fed into neural network in estimating tran- which contains seepage through Plaxis 3D.
sient seepage of earth dam. The first group consists of 80% After running the program, the weight related quantities
of data applied as instruction data in network training in a and the PLAXIS 3D seepage are determined through Eq. (5)
random manner. The second group consists of 20% data to as follows:
test the trained network in a random manner. The Sigmoid
⎡ 1.1368 − 1.1103 2.5576 ⎤
transmission function where a function is placed within {0,1} ⎢ 5.6447 1.6398 0.61022 ⎥
range is applied to normalize the input and target data in the ⎢ ⎥
0.013771 1.0226 0.083693 ⎥
network. To determine the best networks and achieve the most w1 = ⎢
⎢ 3.1102 1.0226 0.1899 ⎥
appropriate possible answer different tests are run in many ⎢ 0.89026 − 2.5395 − 1.3349 ⎥
iterations. In training the neural network, 75–80% of the data ⎢ ⎥
⎣ − 1.55223 3.0814 0.77561 ⎦
is applied, and 20–25% is applied for the testing, while in this
study 80% of the data for training is prevalent, which leads to
more accurate results for this setup.
w2 = [0.22978 0.22022 1.7044 − 0.4051 0.48127 0.41868]

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Table 4  Network features
Network type Instructional function
Feed-Forward back propagation TrainLM
Table 5  Mann–Whitney test Neurons number 1 2
results in seepage
P value 0.081
⎡ − 2.52573 ⎤
⎢ − 1.5824 ⎥
⎢ ⎥
b1 = ⎢ − 0.19575 ⎥ b2 = [0.70006].
⎢ 0.31777 ⎥
⎢ 1.1826 ⎥
⎢ ⎥
⎣ − 1.29349 ⎦
By applying the Mann–Whitney test in SPSS software, it is
revealed that the obtained outputs through neural network with
6 neurons have the best answer in comparison with the seep-
age data from the PLAXIS 3D. The target seepage consists
of the two in TANSIG and PURELIN layers, Table 5. In this
context, the response from the 20% test data of neural network
is compared with the results obtained from the PLAXIS 3D,
leading to a P value = 0.691, indicating a sufficient accuracy to
be calculated in devising the 3D transient seepage.
Results and discussion
Earth dams in central Iran are constructed for storing excess
water and groundwater recharge. This dam due to low seep-
age from its body is safe, where the seepage is collected in
downstream drain. This analysis and actual data measurement
are run, between February 2009 and March 2010 in 15-day
intervals, annually.
• The seepage analysis is run in Plaxis 3D software which
reveals a high accuracy in results, because P value is 0.472
obtained thorough SPSS in comparison with actual seepage
data in the downstream.
• By applying the neural network, the non-linear correlation
is obtained between the input and output. By applying the
same neural network, the seepage with little error is predi-
cated upon need, in the shortest time without modeling.
• This newly proposed neural network model correlation to
can obtained the transient seepage of earth dam when there
is a variation in head upstream. The weights of input func-
tions consist of transient head in upstream, and the actual
data of transient seepage and materials features are of con-
cern here. By examining various parameters mentioned in
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Environmental Earth Sciences (2019) 78:571
Learning function Performance function First layer Second layer
Learngdm MSE Tansig Purelin
3 4 5 6 7
0.128 0.192 0.264 0.389 0.691 0.294
different neural networks, the effective parameters with the
closest answer to the actual condition are selected and tar-
get function transient seepage is obtained through PLAXIS
3D. By applying this obtained equation, the transient seep-
age of earth dams is calculated in different neural networks.
• By considering the characteristics of presented networks
in Table 4, some networks with different neuron count in
hidden layers are determined through testing the transition
function. As to the precision coefficients scales and the
mean of square errors in different networks, the network
with 6 neurons provides the best network due to its accept-
able P value = 0.691 > 0.05.
• An increase in neuron count in the neural network first,
increase the accuracy of the answers that is the optimized
point which then follows a descending pattern.
• Applying this optimized neural network together with the
input variables and the obtained equation 5, the transient
seepage in different points of the subject earth dam is cal-
culated for different upstream heads.
As to the available 20% loss due to seepage evaporation
which is highly significant, authorities should seek to find
measures and procedures in minimizing this critical volume.
Considering the critical water shortage in Iran, attempts should
be made to optimize water consumption and better manage-
ment of superficial and underground waters, through improv-
ing earth dam construction with a serious focus on the vital
issue of seepage. Consequently, it is better to obtain different
equations with respect to different components such as dam
height, soil types, water elevation in the upstream to save time
in critical situations such as failure and erosion of earth dam
and damaged piping system. Applying such equations would
eliminate modeling thus, a saving in time in critical condition.
In areas with high precipitations, precipitation can be con-
sidered as a factor for the destruction of dams, the moisture
distributions due to rainfall infiltration are affected by many
factors including soil layering, rainfall duration, severity of
precipitation and initial pore-water pressure head (Wu et al.
2016, 2017).
Environmental Earth Sciences (2019) 78:571 Page 7 of 7  571

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