Spatial Variability In Seepage Flow Through Earth-Fill Dams

Date

2013-10-10

Author

Çalamak, Melih
Yanmaz, Ali Melih
Kentel Erdoğan, Elçin

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Dams made of earth materials show highly variable hydraulic properties because of uncertain nature of the earthen embankment. Uncertain nature of soil properties may result in variations in flow fields in embankment dams. Determination of seepage characteristics of a dam is crucial since it directly affects the stability. Underestimation of the seepage may lead to catastrophic failures of dams. In this paper, uncertainty in the hydraulic conductivity of the embankment is evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations (MCS) to reveal its effects on unsaturated seepage flow. A software utilizing finite element method for seepage analysis is modified to conduct MCS. Also a code is written for generating saturated/unsaturated random hydraulic conductivity values from defined probability density functions (PDFs). The solution of the flow problem yields the free surface through the dam body and the quantity of seepage for each simulation. The proposed method is applied on a 20 m high simple zoned earth-fill dam. Steady state, two-dimensional and unsaturated seepage flow characteristics are determined for different PDFs of the hydraulic conductivity. The focus of the study is on the discussion of the seepage flux variance. Resulting probability density functions of the flow rate are determined and probability distributions are fitted to characterize them statistically. It is found that most of the probability density functions of flow rate follow beta or gamma distributions. Also, if the mean hydraulic conductivity of the core material of the simple zoned embankment is relatively very small, the uncertainty of the flow rate may be considered insignificant when compared to that of a homogeneous earth-fill dam.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/68878

DOI

https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.1245.3769

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Department of Civil Engineering, Conference / Seminar

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Citation Formats

M. Çalamak, A. M. Yanmaz, and E. Kentel Erdoğan, “Spatial Variability In Seepage Flow Through Earth-Fill Dams,” 2013, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/68878.