Predicting the Behavior of an Earth and Rockfill Dam under Construction
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 7
Abstract
This paper presents an application of a coupled hydromechanical formulation for compacted and rockfill materials to simulate the construction and impoundment of a zoned earth dam. The constitutive relation used to model the mechanical behavior of the shoulder, filter and core materials is the Barcelona Basic Model for unsaturated materials. The hydraulic behavior of dam materials requires the specification of their water retention characteristics and their permeabilities, which will be expressed as a function of porosity and degree of saturation. The model was used in the design stage of Lechago’s dam (Teruel, Spain), currently under construction. Soil parameters were obtained by laboratory tests performed on materials to be used in the dam. The step-by-step construction (following the sequence construction of nine horizontal layers, besides the downstream preloading layers) and subsequent impounding of the reservoir was simulated in a prediction exercise, which will be hopefully confronted with actual construction measurements in the near future. A parametric study was also performed to evaluate the effects of the compaction water content of the core material on the behavior of the dam.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
One of the writers (L. M. C.) is grateful to CNPq/Brazil for the financial support received for the development of the research reported in this paper.
References
Alonso, E. E. (1998). “Suction and moisture regimes in roadway bases and subgrades.” Proc., Int. Symp. On Internal Drainage of Pavements and Subgrades, 57–104.
Alonso, E. E., and Batlle, F. (1995). “Construction and impoundment of an earthdam. Application of the coupled flow-deformation analysis of unsaturated soils.” CISM courses and lectures, No. 357, Springer, Vienna.
Alonso, E. E., Batlle, F., Gens, A., and Lloret, A. (1988). “Consolidation analysis of partially saturated soils—Application to earthdam construction.” Int. Conf. on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics, 1303–1308.
Alonso, E. E., Gens, A., and Hight, D. W. (1987). “Special problem soils.” Proc., 9th European Conf. Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 3, 1087–1146.
Alonso, E. E., Gens, A., and Josa, A. (1990). “A constitutive model for partially saturated soils.” Geotechnique, 40(3), 405–430.
Alonso, E. E., Lloret, A., Gens, A., Batlle, F., and Delahaye, C. H. (1995). “Effect of core compaction water content on the behaviour of earthdams.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Vol. 1, 231–239.
Alonso, E. E., Olivella, S., and Pinyol, N. M. (2006). “A review of Beliche Dam.” Geotechnique, 55(4), 267–285.
Alonso, E. E., and Pinyol, N. M. (2008). “Unsaturated soil mechanics in earth and rockfill dam engineering.” Opening Lecture. Proc., 1st European Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Durham, U.K., 3–32.
Aubry, D., Ozanam, O., and Person, J. P. (1987). “Ecoulements non saturés en milieux poreux deformables.” Proc., 9th European Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 2, 537–540.
Bonelli, S., and Poulain, D. (1995). “Unsaturated elastoplastic model applied to homogeneous earthdam behaviour.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Vol. 1, 265–272.
Cavounidis, S. (1975). “Effective stress-strain analysis of earth dams during construction.” Thesis Presented to Stanford University, Technical Rep. No. 201.
Chang, C. S., and Duncan, J. M. (1977). “Analysis of consolidation of earth and rockfill dams.” Rep. No TE 77-3, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of California, Berkeley.
Chávez, C., and Alonso, E. E. (2003). “A constitutive model for crushed granular aggregates which includes suction effects.” Soils Found., 43(4), 215–228.
Costa, L. M. da (2000). “Análise hidro-mecânica de solos não saturados com aplicação a barragem de terra.” Doctoral thesis, COPPE/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro.
DIT-UPC, CODE̱BRIGHT. (2002). “A 3D program for thermo-hydro-mechanical analysis in geological media.” User’s guide, CIMNE, Barcelona.
Eisenstein, Z., and Law, S. T. C. (1977). “Analysis of consolidation behaviour of Mica dam.” J. Geotech. Engrg. Div., 103, 879–895.
Fry, J. J., Charles, J. A., and Penman, A. D. M. (1996). “Dams, embankments and slopes.” Proc., the 1st Int. Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Vol. 3, 1391–1419.
Gatmiri, B., Tavakoli, S., Moussavi, J., and Delage, P. (1995). “Numerical approach of elastoplastic consolidation of unsaturated soils.” Proc. 1st Int. Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Vol. 2, 1057–1064.
Gens, A., Garcia-Molina, A. J., and Guimarães, L. N. (1997). “Preoperational thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) modelling of the ‘Mockup’ test.” Rep. by ENRESA-FEBEX 70-UPC-M-3-002.
Ghaboussi, J., and Kim, K. J. (1982). “Analysis of saturated and partially saturated soils.” Int. Symp. on Numerical Models in Geomechanics, 377–390.
Holtz, R. D., and Kovacs, W. D. (1981). “An introduction to geotechnical engineering.” Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Justo, J. L., and Saura, J. (1983). “Three-dimensional analysis of Infiernillo dam during construction and filling of the reservoir.” Int. J. Numer. Analyt. Meth. Geomech., 7(2), 225–243.
Kogho, Y. (1992). “Deformation analysis of fill type dams during reservoir filling.” Proc., 4th Int. Symp. Numerical Models in Geomechanics, Vol. 2, 777–787.
Kogho, Y. (2003). “Review of constitutive models for unsaturated soils.” Proc. 2nd Asian Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Osaka, 21–40.
Kogho, Y., and Yamashita, T. (1988). “Finite element analysis of fill type dams—Stability during construction by using the effective stress concept.” Int. Conf. on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics, 1315–1322.
Laigle, F., Poulain, D., and Magnin, P. (1995). “Numerical simulation of La Ganne dam behaviour by a three phases approach.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Vol. 2, 1101–1108.
Ledesma, A., Chan, A. H. C., Vaunat, J., and Gens, A. (1995). “Finite element formulation of an elastoplastic model for partially saturated soils,” Proc., 4th Int. Conf. on Computational Plasticity, 1677–1688.
Lloret, A., and Alonso, E. E. (1985). “State surfaces for partially saturated soils.” Proc., 11th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 2, 557–562.
Matyas, E. L., and Radhakrishna, H. S. (1969). “Volume change characteristics of partially saturated soils.” Geotechnique, 18(4), 432–448.
Naylor, D. J., Maranha das Neves, E., Mattar, D., Jr., and Veiga Pinto, A. A. (1986). “Prediction of construction performance of Beliche Dam.” Geotechnique, 36(3), 359–376.
Naylor, D. J., Maranha das Neves, E., and Veiga Pinto, A. A. (1997). “A back-analysis of Beliche Dam.” Geotechnique, 47(2), 221–233.
Naylor, D. J., Tong, S. L., and Shahkarami, A. A. (1989). “Numerical modelling of saturation shrinkage.” Proc. 3rd Int. Symp. On Numerical Models in Geomechanics, Niagara Falls, 636–648.
Ng, K. L. A., and Small, J. C. (1995). “Simulation of dams constructed with unsaturated fills during construction and water impounding.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Vol. 1, 281–286.
Nobari, E., and Duncan, J. (1972). “Effect of reservoir filling on stresses and movements in earth and rockfill dams.” Rep. No. TE-72-1, Berkeley: Office of Research Services, University of California, 1–186.
Oldecop, L. A., and Alonso, E. E. (2001). “A model for rockfill compressibility.” Geotechnique, 51(2), 127–139.
Olivella, S., Carrera, J., Gens, A., and Alonso, E. E. (1994). “Nonisothermal multiphase flow of brine and gas through saline media.” Transp. Porous Media, 15, 271–293.
Olivella, S., Gens, A., Carrera, J., and Alonso, E. E. (1996). “Numerical Analysis for a simulator (CODE̱BRIGHT) for the coupled analysis of saline media.” Eng. Comput., 13, 87–112.
Richards, B. G., and Chang, C. Y. (1969). “Prediction of pore pressures in earth dams.” Proc., 7th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, 2, 355–362.
Sivakumar, V., and Wheeler, S. J. (2000). “Influence of compaction procedure on the mechanical behaviour of an unsaturated compacted clay. Part 1: Wetting and isotropic compression.” Geotechnique, 50(4), 359–368.
Skempton, A. W. (1954). “The pore pressure coefficients A and B,” Geotechnique, 4(4), 143–147.
Smith, I. M., and Hobbs, R. (1976). “Biot analysis of consolidation beneath embankments.” Geotechnique, 26(1), 149–171.
Soriano, A., Sánchez, F. J. and Serrano, C. (1990). “Simulation of wetting deformations of rockfills.” Proc., 2nd Eur. Conf. on Numer. Methods in Geotech. Engng., Santander, 495–517.
Van Genutchen, M. T. (1980). “A closed form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44, 892–898.
Veiga Pinto, A. A. (1983). “Previsão do comportamento estrutural de barragens de aterro.” Thesis, LNEC, Lisbon.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 7 • July 2009
Pages: 851 - 862
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 15, 2007
Accepted: Oct 20, 2008
Published online: Feb 21, 2009
Published in print: Jul 2009
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.