Assessment of steady-state seepage through dams with nonsymmetric boundary conditions: analytical approach.

Abstract

In this study, new analytical solutions were developed for 2D and 3D steady-state water seepage through dams with nonsymmetric boundary conditions. The nonsymmetric boundary conditions for the 2D cases were created with different unit step functions on a part and/or parts of the right boundary of dam plane. Six cases were investigated in 2D, where a constant hydraulic head is applied at the left boundary of the dam plane and rectangular, ramp, triangular, trapezoidal, tunnel, and piecewise rectangular distributions of hydraulic head are applied at the right boundary of the dam plane. Then, a 3D case with a constant hydraulic head at the upstream and a linearly distributed hydraulic head at the downstream of the dam was investigated. Subsequently, the performance of proposed analytical solutions was examined by comparison with numerical finite difference modeling. The results demonstrate reasonable accuracy of the developed equations. The developed analytical solutions can be utilized as a benchmark to verify numerical models with similar boundary conditions.