Geo-Congress 2020
Influence of Anisotropic Permeability on Slope Stability Analysis of an Earthen Dam during Rapid Drawdown
Publication: Geo-Congress 2020: Engineering, Monitoring, and Management of Geotechnical Infrastructure (GSP 316)
ABSTRACT
The operation of dams at times requires a sudden decrease in the existing reservoir level. This abrupt change in the upstream water level, known as rapid drawdown, results in the development of unbalanced forces and occasionally causes catastrophic failure of the upstream shell. The drawdown-induced slope stability analyses are typically performed assuming that geomaterials used to build the dam exhibit isotropic permeability; even though, in reality, the geomaterials mostly exhibit anisotropic properties. The principal objective of this study is to comprehend the impact of anisotropic permeability on the drawdown-induced stability analysis of earthen dams and assess the impact of erroneously assuming isotropic permeability properties for numerical analyses. The influence of dam geometry, rate of drawdown, and depth of reservoir water before drawdown were also studied. The results of this research study highlight that the assumption of isotropic permeability inevitably leads to erroneous estimation of deformations incurred during drawdown. The extent of error was observed to increase with an increase in the dam slope and drawdown velocity.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the PLAXIS-2D support team for providing general support and additional soil modules used in the analysis.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2020: Engineering, Monitoring, and Management of Geotechnical Infrastructure (GSP 316)
Pages: 29 - 39
Editors: James P. Hambleton, Ph.D., Northwestern University, Roman Makhnenko, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Aaron S. Budge, Ph.D., Minnesota State University, Mankato
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8279-7
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Feb 21, 2020
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Anisotropy
- Continuum mechanics
- Deformation (mechanics)
- Drawdown (hydrology)
- Engineering mechanics
- Geomaterials
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Groundwater
- Hydraulic engineering
- Hydraulic structures
- Isotropy
- Material mechanics
- Material properties
- Materials engineering
- Permeability (soil)
- Reservoirs
- River engineering
- Rivers and streams
- Slope stability
- Slopes
- Soil mechanics
- Soil properties
- Solid mechanics
- Structural mechanics
- Water (by type)
- Water and water resources
- Water management
- Wells (water)
Authors
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