Use of clayey soils of quaternary deposits in anti-seepage curtains of water-development works

Abstract

Water-development works exert a significant influence on the surrounding environment, often giving rise to new geologic processes and activation of old ones associated with a rise in the ground-water table, filtration of water around structures, and variation in the physico-mechanical properties of the soils in their beds. This results in the need to perform a large volume of work to eliminate the negative effects of the construction, directly during construction in some cases, and after the lapse of tens of years since completion of construction, and the structure has been placed in service in others. To reduce the negative effect on the surrounding environment, many modern water-development works are fitted with anti-seepage curtains. The ultimate goal of creating such curtains may differ: prevention of landslide and collapse processes on natural slopes (for example, the upper pool of the Dnester pumped-storage power plant), protection of the structure from slump-type phenomena when the bed is wetted (for example, the water intake for the Moscow state power plant on the Baksan-Malka Canal), flood protection for underground workings (for example, the daily-regulation basin (DRB) at the Zelenchukskaya HPP), protection of ground water from contamination, (for example, burial grounds for hard domsetic waste, ponds-settling basins and runoff accumulators in the Moscow Oblast, the MGUP “Mosvodokanal”), elimination of suffosion processes in the shore abutments and beds of water-lifting dams (for example, the Khalibiya-Zalyabiya hydroproject under design in the South African Republic, etc. The area of earthen anti-seepage curtains amounts to