Permeability Change Driving Effect on Embankment Dams Case Study: The Zonouz Embankment Dam

Abstract

Seepage is one of the most important issues in Civil engineering especially in the field of damping and particularly in Embankment dams. Existence of wide valleys in basins puts a priority on the execution of embankment dams. Seepage analysis is one of the matters that if neglected could lead to destroying factors such as seepage forces and creation of pore water pressure that threat the stability of the dam. In this study the seepage of the Zonouz embankment dam's body is numerically modeled by finite element method (FEM). This analysis is numerically modeled by observational head piezometric data and its comparison with the results. It was done in two different cross sections of the Zonouz embankment dam and the modeling for each section was done after the calibration of permeability coefficients and verification by the numerical modeling. Permeability changes have been calibrated by (FEM) and the piezometric heads were compared with observational piezometric heads and finally root-mean-square-error has calculated for each cross section, it has produced a result the best core section for the dam with a view to geometrical and permeability coefficient in the last model. At last, the seepage analysis model which transient state has been done, the importance of consideration nonhomogenous core by different permeability coefficients has been proved and also this model by its dynamic and transient state can be useful in forecast core of dam's behavior.