Unit 1

Earth Dams

Dr. Jitendra Singh Yadav

Assistant Professor-I
Dept of Civil Engineering
NIT Kurukshetra, Kurukshetra Haryana
• Introduction,
• Types of sections,
• Earth dam foundations,
• Causes of failure and criteria for safe design,
• Control of seepage through the embankment,
• Control of seepage through the foundation,
• Drainage of foundations,
• Criterion for filter design.
• If the horizontal thickness of the diaphragm (made of impervious soil) at any
elevation is less than 10 m or less than the height of embankment above any
corresponding elevation in the dam, the dam is of the diaphragm type. If the
impervious earth diaphragm equals or exceeds these thicknesses, the dam is
considered to be ‘zoned embankment’ type.
FOUNDATIONS FOR EARTH DAMS

The different types of foundations can be considered under three categories viz., (i) Rock, (ii)
Sands and gravels and (iii) Clayey material

Rock foundations :
• In general do not present any problem.
• The shear stresses induced in these foundations by earth dams will usually be well within
their capacity and they would allow only small seepage to take place under the dam.
• However, in some cases they may require grouting if there are through joints, fissures,
crevices, fault planes or permeable strata present in the foundation rock, which if not
grouted would result in erosive leakage and excessive loss of water
Coarse sands and gravels in foundation
• also give no trouble from the point of view of stability.
• These soils being highly pervious permit the excess water present in their voids to be
drained out easily under the load of the dam and hence these soils get consolidated very
rapidly.
• Moreover, since the increase in shear strength (or shear resistance) of a soil depends on
the rate of consolidation of the soil, the shear strength of these soils increases almost
simultaneously with the construction of the dam. Hence the shear stresses induced in
these soils by the load of the dam are mostly within the increased shear strength of
these soils
• The only sand formations unsuitable from consideration of stability are certain fine
uniform sands in loose condition which lose their shear strength or liquify if subjected to
sudden shear stresses in a saturated condition. The formation of this type if occurring in
the foundations need to be compacted by pile driving or otherwise before any
construction is undertaken on them.
• The main problem with sand and gravel foundations is that they are highly pervious and
the seepage discharge through them may be undesirably high. However, by using the
various methods of seepage control as indicated later, the quantity of seepage can be
reduced to a considerable extent.
Clay foundations require greatest attention since they are more susceptible to shear
failures.
Clays being highly impervious do not permit the excess water present in their voids to
be drained out easily under the load of the dam and hence their consolidation takes a
long time which may even extend to number of years in many cases.
As such when a dam is constructed on clay foundations due to lower rate of
consolidation the shear strength of the soil increases at a slow rate.
Hence the shear stresses induced in the soil by the load of the dam may exceed the shear
strength of the soil which may result in the failure of the dam.
For clay foundations therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the foundation shear
stresses are less than the shear strength of the soil.
For this it may sometimes be necessary to flatten the slopes of the dam to spread its load
on a larger area though steeper slopes could have been otherwise provided so far as the
stability of the dam alone is concerned.
 Piping Failure In Hydraulic Structures

• When the water flows in the soil in horizontal

direction, it exerts seepage force on the particles
in the horizontal direction and when it flows
vertically, the force is exerted in vertical
direction.

• If this exerted force is strong it has the

capability to displace the soil particles in its way
and particles may get carried away by the
flowing water. This phenomenon leads to a very
serious problem in the soil engineering,
development of channels in soil and this
phenomenon is called piping.
• When water flows through the pervious
foundation of any dam with a very high
hydraulic gradient, it may carry soil particles
with it causing to form pipe-shaped channels in
its foundation and the structure may fail
because of piping failure.
1. Backward-erosion piping failure:
• When water percolates through soil under any
hydraulic structure it may happen to exit vertically
upwards at the downstream. If this water moves
with a high hydraulic gradient, the seepage force or
drag exerted by it on soil particles may push them
up and soil particles at the exit point of the water
may be removed by the force of water.
• This removal of soil particles decreases the length
of flow and that increases the hydraulic gradient
even more causing further removal of the soil. This
process of erosion of soil in the backward direction
continues towards the upstream and a pipe like
opening is formed below the dam. Hydraulic
structure becomes unstable and may fail. This type
of Piping is called backward erosion piping.
• Generally, backward erosion piping failure occurs
when the exit gradient becomes greater than the
critical hydraulic gradient.
• The hydraulic gradient near the exit point of the
water is called the exit gradient. If we draw the
flow net for this particular flow condition, we may
calculate the exit gradient as the drop of head
through the last flow field divided by the length of
this flow field.
Critical hydraulic gradient is the hydraulic gradient with which when water
flows in the soil in upward direction, the seepage force or drag exerted by
water on soil particles, which pushes them up, completely balances the weight
of these particles, and they seem to be suspended in water.
Soil in such state does not behave like a soil any more but behaves like a very
viscous liquid. Soil loses all its shear strength and is no longer able to support
any load.

For the safety of the structure the exit gradient must be very low from the
critical hydraulic gradient. This piping phenomenon leads to the whole
structure failure and it is so serious that for safety against piping a factor of
safety of at least 6 is recommended.
If the dam that holds the water is an earth dam, that is it is made up of earth material such as
rock and soil, this backward erosion piping may also occur in the body of structure.
2. Heave piping failure
• Heave meaning is to lift or raise something with great force.
• This kind of failure may also occur on the downstream side of a hydraulic
structure when water is coming out vertically upwards.
• It occurs when the upward seepage force acting on the particles over an area
exceeds the downward force because of submerged weight of the soil above
that area.
• This condition destabilizes the soil and if this uplift force acts opposite the force
of gravity due to the weight of the dam and if it is high enough, it may destabilize
the whole hydraulic structure.
Foundation slide
• When the foundation of the earth dams are made of soft soils, such as fine silt, soft
clay, etc., the entire dam may slide over the foundation. Sometimes, seams of
fissured rocks, shales or soft clay, etc. may exits under the foundation, and the dam
may slide over some of them, causing its failure.
• In this embankment gets cracked and sub sides, the lower slope moves outward
forming large mud waves near the heel.
 Slide in. Embankments

• When the embankment slopes are too steep for the

strength of the soil, they may slide causing dam failure.
• The most critical condition of the slide of the u/s slope
is the sudden drawdown of the reservoir; and the d/s
slope is most likely to slide, when the reservoir is full.
• The u/s slope failures seldom lead to catastrophic
failures, but the d/s slope failures are very serious.
• These failures, generally occur due to development of
excessive unaccounted pore pressures which may
reduce the shearing strength of the soil.
DESIGN CRITERIA FOR EARTH DAMS
(1) The embankment must be safe against overtopping during occurrence of the
inflow design flood by the provision of sufficient spillway and outlet works
capacity.
(2) The dam must have sufficient free board so that it is not overtopped by wave
action.
(3) The seepage line should be well within the d/s face so that no sloughing of the
slope takes place.
(4) Seepage flow through the embankment, foundation and abutments must be
controlled by suitable design provisions so that no internal erosion takes place.
The amount of water lost through seepage must be controlled so that it does not
interfere with planned project functions.
(5) There should be no opportunity for the free passage of water from upstream to
the downstream either through the dam or through the foundation.
(6) The portion of the downstream of the impervious core should be properly
drained.
(7) The upstream and downstream slopes should be so designed that they are safe
during and immediately after the construction.
(8) The downstream slope should be so designed that it is safe during steady
seepage case under full reservoir condition.
(9) The upstream slope should be stable during rapid drawdown condition.
(10) The upstream and downstream slopes of the dam should be flat enough so
that shear stress induced in the foundation is enough less than the shear strength
of the material in the foundation to ensure a suitable factor of safety.
(11) The dam as a whole should be earthquake resistant.
(12) The upstream slope must be protected against erosion by wave action, and
the crest and down stream slope must be protected against erosion due to wind
and rain.
Methods for preventing the piping failure
1. Increasing the path of flow:
We know the hydraulic gradient is head loss over
the length of the flow. We can see in a dam it is
difficult to decrease the head loss but we have
control over the length of the flow over which it
is percolating.
If we increase the length of the flow, the
hydraulic gradient will decrease and that also
cause to decrease the exit gradient. We can
increase the length of flow so that exit gradient
becomes well below the critical hydraulic
gradient and structure will be safe.
1. Increasing the path of flow:

There are few methods through which we can increase this flow path
i). We can increase the base width of the hydraulic structure so water has to travel more to
reach the downstream and length of flow is increased.
ii). We can provide vertical cut off walls below the structure at the upstream end there by
water has to go below this wall to reach the downstream
iii) We can also provide an impervious blanket on the upstream.
2. Reducing seepage
If our hydraulic structure is an earth dam, we can reduce possibility of piping failure through
the body of the dam by the reduction of seepage through its body. For that we provide an
impervious core through which water cannot flow.
We can also provide the drainage filter near the toe of the earth dam. Drainage filter consists
of layers of pervious material which permit flow of water but prevent the movement of soil
particles.
Drainage filter changes the direction of flow away from the downstream face and avoid
piping through the body of the dam.
3. Loaded filter
It is provided at the downstream from where the water emerges out. A loaded filter
consists of pervious material such as graded sand and gravels.

The loaded filter increases the downward force to counter the upward
seepage force at the point where water emerges out from the soil. Hence the
loaded filter increases the factor of safety against piping and the factor of
safety is given by weight of soil plus weight of filter divided by upward
seepage force.

Filters are so designed that they are more permeable than the soil they
protect and yet their particles are not very big or not so coarse that the fine
particles of the soil they protect can move through the voids in the filter.
Filter Design
When seepage water flows from a soil with relatively
fine grains into a coarser material, there is danger that
the fine soil particles may wash away into the coarse
material.
Over a period of time, this process may clog the void
spaces in the coarser material. Hence, the grain-size
distribution of the coarse material should be properly
manipulated to avoid this situation.
A properly designed coarser material is called a filter.
For proper selection of the filter material, two conditions
should be kept in mind:

Condition 1: The size of the voids in the filter material should be

small enough to hold the larger particles of the protected material
in place.
Condition 2: The filter material should have a high hydraulic
conductivity to prevent build up of large seepage forces and
hydrostatic pressures in the filters.
Filter Design

• It can be shows that, if three perfect spheres have diameters

greater than 6.5 times the diameter of a smaller sphere, the
small sphere can move through the void spaces of the larger
ones (Figure a).
• If the pore spaces in a filter are small enough to hold D85 of
the soil to be protected, then the finer soil particles also will
be protected (Figure. b).
• This means that the effective diameter of the pore spaces in
the filter should be less than D85 of the soil to be protected.
The effective pore diameter is about of the filter.
• With this in mind and based on the experimental
investigation of filters, Terzaghi and Peck (1948) provided
the following criteria to satisfy Condition 1:

Figure (a) Large spheres with diameters of

6.5 times the diameter of the small sphere;
(b) boundary between a filter and the soil to
be protected
Filter Design
In order to satisfy Condition 2, they suggested that
Filter Design

The U.S. Navy (1971) requires the following conditions for the design of filters.
Filter Design
Filter design

For the proper selection of the filter material,

1) The size of the voids in the filter material should be
small enough to hold the larger particles of the
protected material in place.
d15(F) = Dia. Through which 15% of filter material
d15( F )
 4−5 will pass
d85( S ) d85(S) = Dia. Through which 85% of soil to be protected
will pass
2) The filter material should have a high permeability
to prevent buildup of large seepage forces and
hydrostatic pressure in the filters.
d15(S) = Dia. Through which 15% of soil to be
d15( F )
 4−5 protected will pass
d15( S )
Thank You!!!