Seepage Characteristics of Homogeneous and Non-homogeneous Earthen Dam by FEM

Abstract

From the safety point of view the consideration of seepage through the earthen dam is very important factor in geotechnical engineering. There are many important terms and many important things related to this structure. The sluggish pass of water through small porous materials is seepage. On the other hand, failure of dams occurs when the passing rate of seepage is out of control. The main target of this paper is to show the comparison of seepage flow through homogeneous and non-homogeneous earthen dam by Finite Element Method (FEM). For this analysis, a sub program of Geo studio, SEEP/W [12], has been applied. All the program is performed both for the homogeneous and non-homogeneous earthen dam. For this purpose, some other materials are also used such as silty clay, clay with blanket filter, horizontal filter, toe combined with horizontal drains, rock toe, internal clay, transition filter. After completing this analysis, it is possible to measure the amount of water passing through the seepage for both conditions in pervious and impervious at the homogenous and non-homogeneous earthen dam. It is clearly observed that there is a difference between homogeneous and non-homogeneous earth dams.