1907 Static Liquefaction Flow Failure of the North Dike of Wachusett Dam
This article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 126, Issue 12
Abstract
A static liquefaction flow failure occurred in the upstream slope of the North Dike of Wachusett Dam near Clinton, Massachusetts on April 11, 1907 during the first reservoir filling. The fine sands of the upstream dike shell liquefied and flowed approximately 100 m horizontally into the reservoir. This paper presents a description of the construction of the North Dike, failure of the upstream slope, and the results of stability analyses that were conducted to estimate the shear strength mobilized in the liquefied soils during failure. Analyses of the postfailure geometry, the prefailure geometry, and an analysis incorporating the kinetics of failure were conducted. The back-calculated shear strength considering the kinetics of failure is in agreement with other liquefaction flow failure case histories published in the literature. As a result, it is recommended that the kinetics of failure be considered to determine the shear strength mobilized during a liquefaction flow failure.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Baril, P. H., Wood, D. W., and Walton, W. H. ( 1992). “The Wachusett dam in the 21st century: modifications after 100 years of service.” Twelfth Annu. U.S. Comm. on Large Dams (USCOLD) Lecture Series, Fort Worth, Tex., Vol. 1, 1–22.
2.
Casagrande, A. (1965). “Second Terzaghi lecture: role of the `calculated risk' in earthwork and foundation engineering.”J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., ASCE, 91(4), 1–40.
3.
Castro, G. ( 1995). “Empirical method in liquefaction evaluation.” Proc., 1st Annu. Leonardo Zeevaert Int. Conf., 1, 1–41.
4.
Castro, G., Keller, T. O., and Boynton, S. S. ( 1989). “Re-evaluation of the lower San Fernando dam: report 1, an investigation of the February 9, 1971 slide.” U.S. Army Corps of Engrs. Contract Rep. GL-89-2, Vols. 1 and 2, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Miss.
5.
Castro, G., Seed, R. B., Keller, T. O., and Seed, H. B. (1992). “Steady-state strength analysis of lower San Fernando dam slide.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 118(3), 406–427.
6.
Davis, A. P., Castro, G., and Poulos, S. J. ( 1988). “Strengths backfigured from liquefaction case histories.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Case Histories in Geotech. Engrg., St. Louis, Vol. IV, 1693–1701.
7.
GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. ( 1991). “Wachusett Dam—Clinton, Massachusetts—north dike stability.” Stage I Report, Report to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Vol. II, Metropolitan District Commission, Boston.
8.
Haley & Aldrich, Inc. ( 1984a). “Report on phase II investigation, Wachusett reservoir dam, Clinton, Massachusetts.” Rep. Prepared for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Metropolitan District Commission, Boston.
9.
Haley & Aldrich, Inc. ( 1984b). “Report on phase II investigation, Wachusett reservoir, north dike, south dike, Clinton, Massachusetts.” Rep. Prepared for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Metropolitan District Commission, Boston.
10.
Hazen, A. ( 1918). “A study of the slip in the Calaveras dam.” Engrg. News-Rec., 81(26), 1158–1164.
11.
Liao, S. C., and Whitman, R. V. (1986). “Overburden correction factors for SPT in sand.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 112(3), 373–377.
12.
Mesri, G., Feng, T. W., and Benak, J. M. (1990). “Postdensification penetration resistance of clean sands.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 116(7), 1095–1115.
13.
Metropolitan District Commission. ( 1907). Seventh annual report of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston.
14.
Poulos, S. J., Castro, G., and France, J. W. (1985). “Liquefaction evaluation procedure.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 111(6), 772–792.
15.
Sasitharan, S., Robertson, P. K., Sego, D. C., and Morgenstern, N. R. ( 1993). “Collapse behavior of sand.” Can. Geotech. J., Ottawa, 30, 569–577.
16.
Schmertmann, J. H. (1987). “Discussion of `Time-dependent strength gain in freshly deposited or densified sand,' by J. K. Mitchell, and Z. V. Solymar.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 113(2), 173–175.
17.
Seed, H. B., Tokimatsu, K., Harder, L. F., and Chung, R. M. (1985). “Influence of SPT procedures in soil liquefaction resistance evaluations.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 111(12), 1425–1445.
18.
Seed, H. B. (1987). “Design problems in soil liquefaction.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 113(8), 827–845.
19.
Seed, R. B., and Harder, L. F. ( 1990). “SPT-based analysis of cyclic pore pressure generation and undrained residual strength.” Proc., H. B. Seed Memorial Symp., Bi-Tech Publishing Ltd., Richmond, British Columbia, Vol. 2, 351–376.
20.
Skempton, A. W. ( 1985). “Residual strength of clays in landslides, folded strata and the laboratory.” Géotechnique, London, 35(1), 3–18.
21.
Sladen, J. A., D'Hollander, R. D., and Krahn, J. ( 1985). “The liquefaction of sands, a collapse surface approach.” Can. Geotech J., Ottawa, 22, 564–578.
22.
Spencer, E. ( 1967). “A method of analysis of the stability of embankments assuming parallel interslice forces.” Géotechnique, London, 17(1), 11–26.
23.
Stark, T. D., and Eid, H. T. (1998). “Performance of three-dimensional slope stability methods in practice.”J. Geotech. and Geoenvir. Engrg., ASCE, 124(11), 1049–1060.
24.
Stark, T. D., and Mesri, G. (1992). “Undrained shear strength of liquefied sands for stability analysis.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 118(11), 1727–1747.
25.
Stark, T. D., Olson, S. M., Kramer, S. L., and Youd, T. L. ( 1998). “Shear strength of liquefied soils.” Proc., Workshop on Post-Liquefaction Shear Strength of Granular Soils, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Ill., 〈http://mae.ce.uiuc.edu〉.
26.
Wright, S. G. ( 1990). UTEXAS3—A computer program for slope stability calculations, Shinoak Software, Austin, Tex.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 126 • Issue 12 • December 2000
Pages: 1184 - 1193
History
Received: Aug 10, 1999
Published online: Dec 1, 2000
Published in print: Dec 2000
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.