Effect of hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soil on the earth dam performance

Abstract

In this paper, the finite element method is uzed to solve the governing equations of flow through earth dams. The computer program Geo-Slope is used in the analysis through its sub-program named SEEP/W. A case study is considered to be Al-Adhaim dam which consists of zoned embankment with a total length of 3.1 km. The dam in its actual design is analyzed. Then, an attempt is made to study the seepage in unsaturated zone of the dam through studying the effect of several parameters including the effect of changing the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity with the degree of saturation of the core soil and changing of water level in the reservoir. A procedure is proposed to define the hydraulic conductivity function from the soil water characteristic curve which is measured by the filter paper method. Fitting methods are applied through the program SoilVision. A parametric study was carried out and different parameters were changed to study their effects on the behavior of partially saturated soil. The study reveals that the rate of flow is decreased by about 20 - 27% when the degree of saturation of the core material is decreased from 100% to 50% at water level 115.75 m, while the exit gradient of flow is decreased by about 13 -15%. This decrease in flow rate becomes 13-15% and 8-9.5% when the reservoir water level is 131.5 m and 143.5 m, respectively, while the exit gradient of flow is increased by about 23-29.5% and 29-29.5% when the reservoir water level is 131.5 m and 143.5 m, respectively. When the state of soil changes from fully saturated S= 100% to partially saturated S= 90%, a rapid increase in head gradient and pore water takes place at the embankment base for different water levels in the reservoir. This decrease plateaus out on further decrease in the degree of saturation.