Calculation and Analysis of Earth-rock Dam Seepage Flow Based on FEM

Abstract

Earth-rock dam is the oldest dam type and is the most widely used type of dam in the world. Because earth-rock dams have the superiority that other dam types do not have, earth-rock dams have a large proportion in China. After the earth-rock dam is built to retain water, it sees a seepage in the dam body. The earth and rock material in the saturated zone is subjected to buoyancy, which reduces the effective weight against sliding. After the dam is immersed in water, the shear strength index of the earth and stone will be reduced, and the seepage force may have an adverse effect on the dam slope. When the seepage flows out of the dam slope, dam foundation or river bank, the dam body may cause piping, fluid and other seepage damage. Therefore, we must carry out the seepage analysis of the dam body, and the finite element method is mainly applied to the seepage analysis of the dam body. This paper uses the APDL language programming of ANSYS software to complete the seepage calculation and analysis of earth-rock dams. This paper uses the post-processing module of ANSYS to view the seepage path, seepage results and wetting line of the earth-rock dam.