Saturated-Unsaturated Flow through Leaky Dams
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 10
Abstract
This research investigated seepage flow through leaky dams using the well known finite-element method. Different areas, locations, and hydraulic conductivities of leaks were examined. An area of leak, equal to 4.4% of the core area, increased the seepage flow through the dam to be about 9.5 times the seepage flow through tight (nonleaky) core. This happened for a dam having a downstream horizontal drainage filter. When the drainage filter did not exist, the increase of flow because of the same area of leak was about seven times the flow through a tight core. When the leak existed at the centerline of the core in the out-of-plane direction, its impact was slightly greater than when it existed at the edge of the core. Moreover, as the location of the leak moved up vertically, its impact was observed to be less. It was also observed that when the leak existed in curtain wall driven into underneath the dam, its impact was not significant compared with the case when it existed in the core.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writer would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions, which helped improve the manuscript.
References
Bathe, K. J., and Khoshgoftaar, M. R. (1979). “Finite element free surface seepage analysis without mesh iteration.” Int. J. Numer. Analyt. Meth. Geomech., 3, 13–22.
Brooks, R. H., and Corey, A. T. (1964). “Hydraulic properties of porous media.” Hydrology Paper No. 3, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, Colo.
Desai, C. S. (1976). “Finite element residual schemes for unconfined flow.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng., 10, 1415–1418.
Desai, C. S., and Baseghi, B. (1988). “Theory and verification of residual flow procedure for 3-D free surface seepage.” Adv. Water Resour., 11, 192–203.
Harr, M. E. (1962). Ground water and seepage, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Lee, J. Y., Choi, Y. K., Kim, H. S., and Yun, S. T. (2005). “Hydrologic characteristics of a large rockfill dam: Implications for water leakage.” Eng. Geol. (Amsterdam), 80, 43–59.
Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR). (2003). “Dam safety: Seepage through earthen dams.” Fact Sheet No. 03-08, Division of Water, Dam Safety Engineering Program.
Romanov, D., Gabrovsek, F., and Dreybrodt, W. (2003). “Dam sites in soluble rocks: A model of increasing leakage by dissolutional widening of fractures beneath a dam.” Eng. Geol. (Amsterdam), 70, 17–35.
Rozycki, A., Ruiz Fonticiell, J. M., and Cuadra, A. (2006). “Detection and evaluation of horizontal fractures in earth dams using the self-potential method.” Eng. Geol. (Amsterdam), 82, 145–153.
Sato, T. (1990). “Fill dam leakage by network assessment.” Adv. Water Resour., 13, 85–89.
Unal, B., Eren, M., and Yalcin, M. G. (2007). “Investigation of leakage at Ataturk dam and hydro electric power plant by means of hydrometric measurements.” Eng. Geol. (Amsterdam), 93, 45–63.
van Genuchten, M. T. (1980). “A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44, 892–898.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 10 • October 2008
Pages: 1564 - 1568
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 13, 2007
Accepted: Dec 6, 2007
Published online: Oct 1, 2008
Published in print: Oct 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.