Experiments and Numerical Analyses for Spillway on Small Earth Dam Subjected to Simple Shear

The purpose of this study is to clarify the dynamic behavior of spillway on soil subjected to cyclic simple shear, which modeled earthquake vibration. In this study, small-scale simple shear tests with aluminum rods and numerical simulations using the 2-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) were conducted. The results demonstrated that the spillway inclines from side to side and gradually floats up. The uplift displacement of spillway reinforced by geogrid models was smaller than that of unreinforced spillway because geogrid models prevented the ground from displacing toward the bottom of the spillway model and the forces from acting on the sidewall of spillway.