Abstract
Suffusion erosion may occur in sandy gravel dam foundations that use suspended cutoff walls. This erosion causes a loss of fine particles, degrades the soil strength and deformation moduli, and adversely impacts the cutoff walls of the dam foundation, as well as the overlying dam body. A comprehensive evaluation of these effects requires models that quantitatively describe the effects of fine particle losses on the stress-strain relationships of sandy gravels. In this work, we propose an experimental scheme for studying these types of models, and then perform triaxial and confined compression tests to determine the effects of particle losses on the stress-strain relationships. Considering the Duncan-Chang E-B model, quantitative expressions describing the relationship between the parameters of the model and the particle losses were derived. The results show that particle losses did not alter the qualitative stress-strain characteristics of the soils; however, the soil strength and deformation moduli were degraded. By establishing the relationship between the parameters of the model and the losses, the same model can then be used to describe the relationship between sandy gravels and erosion levels that vary in both time and space.
Highlights
Suffusion describes the phenomenon whereby finer particles erode through the voids between coarse particles due to seepage flow, which is frequently detected in natural deposits and earthen structures
For soils composed of large homogeneous particles, if the particles are maximally packed and small quantities of extremely fine particles are present in the spaces between the large particles, and fine particle losses will only affect the seepage characteristics of the soil while having a minimal impact on the deformation characteristics
Βt )dσ kl Equations (1), (3), (5), (6) and (9)–(16) form the stress-strain relationships of the Duncan-Chang E-B model for sandy gravels that are affected by piping erosion.This model and method of calculation are already being used in computational analyses on the stress and deformation caused by suffusion in dam foundations that use suspended cutoff walls, and in the design of several rockfill dams that are being built on alluvial strata of various thicknesses and depths
Summary
Suffusion describes the phenomenon whereby finer particles erode through the voids between coarse particles due to seepage flow, which is frequently detected in natural deposits and earthen structures. It is critical that a number of practical engineering questions related to suffusion erosion be addressed as soon as possible, for example, whether suffusion erosion will continue to develop within the dam foundations, whether the development of erosion will cause seepage failure in dam foundations, and whether limited levels of suffusion erosion will affect the structure of large dams These are key issues in the engineering and design of dams on sandy gravelly alluvial strata. Triaxial tests and confined compression tests were used to study the effects of particle losses on the stress-strain relationships, and quantitative descriptive methods were proposed Together, these provide a basis for quantitative assessments of stress and strain in dam bodies, and foundations that experience suffusion erosion
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