CEng 7033 - Design and Analysis

of Embankment Dams

Embankment Dams
 Dams, which are constructed of earth and rock materials, are generally
referred to as embankment dams or fill-type dams. The history of
construction of embankment dams is much older than that of concrete
dams. It is evident that some earth dams were constructed about 3,000
years ago in the cradles of ancient cultures such as east countries.
 According to the standard manual provided by the International
Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), in which about 63 member countries
are now associated, dams with the height of more than 15m are referred
to as "high dams". About 14,000 high dams have been registered up to the
present, and more than 70 percent of them are embankment dams. A
recent report on the construction of high dams has also noted that among
about 1,000 of high dams constructed in recent two years, just about 20
percent are concrete dams and remaining 80 percent are embankment
dams.

1
 Types of Embankment Dams
 Embankment dams are classified into two main categories by types of
soil mainly used as construction materials, such as earthfill dams and
rockfill dams.
 The latter ones further can be classified into a few groups by
configurations of dam sections, as one with a centrally located core, one
with an inclined core and one with a facing, as shown in Fig.1.1.
 The main body of rockfill dams, which should have a structural
resistance against failure, consists of rockfill shell and transition zones,
and core and facing zones have a role to minimize leakage through
embankment.
 Filter zone should be provided in any type of rockfill dams to prevent
loss of soil particles by erosion due to seepage flow through
embankment.
 In earthfill dams, on the other hand, the dam body is the only one which
should have both structural and seepage resistance against failure with a
provided drainage facilities.
3

Types of Embankment Dams

2
 Types of Embankment Dams

 Even though we call them homogeneous dams, filter materials are added for
stability reasons in the current practice

Zoned Embankment Dams

3
 Types of Embankment Dams

Types of Embankment Dams

4
 Types of Embankment Dams

Types of Embankment Dams

10

5
 Types of Embankment Dams

11

Types of Embankment Dams

12

6
 Types of Embankment Dams

13

Types of Embankment Dams

14

7
 Types of Embankment Dams

15

Types of Embankment Dams

 The dam type in a project is determined by considering various

factors associated with topography and geology of the dam
site, and quality and quantity of construction materials
available.
 The inclined core is adopted instead of the center core, for
instance, in cases where the dam foundation has a steep
inclination along the river, where a blanket zone is provided in
the pervious foundation to be connected with the impervious
core zone, and where different construction processes are
available for the placement of core and rockfill materials.

16

8
 Types of Embankment Dams - Selection
 The selection of the type of dam embankment to be used at a particular site
is affected by many factors, some of which are outlined below.
 The dam engineer’s task is to consider these factors and adopt a suitable
design.
 The overriding consideration in most cases will be to construct an
adequately safe structure for the lowest total cost.
 Hence, preparation of alternative designs and estimates of cost for those
alternatives will be a normal part of the design procedure.
 Usually the most economic design will be that which uses a construction
materials source close to the dam, without excessive modification from the
“borrow pit run” or “quarry run” material.

17

Types of Embankment Dams - Selection

 Factors affecting the selection of dam type:

 Availability of construction material

 Foundation Condition

 Climate

 Topography and relation to other structures

 Staged construction

 Time of construction

18

9
 Types of Embankment Dams – Selection:
Availability of Materials

 Clearly the availability of suitable earthfill within

economic haul distance is critical in the
selection of the embankment type.
 Earth fill – core material
 Rock fill
 Filters and filter drains

19

Types of Embankment Dams – Selection:

Foundation Condition
 The strength, permeability and compressibility of the dam foundation have a major
influence on the embankment type, e.g.:
 A soil foundation will have a relatively low strength, which may determine the
embankment stability, and will require relatively flat embankment slopes. Such a
formation is likely to favour construction of earthfill dams, i.e. earthfill with
horizontal and vertical drains, rather than earth and rockfill;
 A permeable soil foundation will be susceptible to leakage and erosion, requiring
construction of some form of cutoff and a filter drain under the downstream
slope of the dam;
 In earthquake zone areas, the presence of loose to medium dense saturated
sandy soils in the foundation will be important, as liquefaction may occur during
earthquakes. This may necessitate removal or densification of the sandy soil
and/or the provision of weighting berms;
 In some areas, often but not always tropical, the rock is deeply weathered and
sometimes with a lateritic profile which may lead to a high permeability, soil
strength foundation, favouring embankments with flatter slopes and good under
drainage, e.g. earthfill with vertical and horizontal drain;
 Embankments constructed on deep soils, e.g. deep alluvium in or adjacent to the
river bed, may be subject to a large amount of settlement, leading to differential
movement and cracking. In such dams it is particularly important to provide
good filters to control seepage and prevent internal erosion.

20

10
 Types of Embankment Dams – Selection:
Climate
 It is difficult (and in many cases impossible) to construct earthfill
embankments during wet weather, or in freezing temperatures. This is
particularly critical when the rain is relatively continuous without high
evaporation (and not so critical when the rain is in short storms, followed by
hot sunshine).
 In these circumstances, it is often advantageous to adopt concrete face
rockfill or sloping upstream core construction, so that the rockfill can
continue to be placed in the wet weather, and the face slab or core
constructed when the weather is favourable.
 In very arid areas there may be a shortage of water for construction,
thus favouring concrete face rockfill rather than earthfill.

21

Types of Embankment Dams – Selection:

Topography and relation to other structures
 The selection of embankment type and overall economics of a project
is determined with consideration of all components of the project, i.e.
embankment, spillway, river diversion outlet works etc. These
components are interrelated, e.g.:
 The diversion tunnel will be longer for an earthfill dam (with relatively
flat side slopes) than for a rockfill dam;
 The topography of the site, i.e. valley cross section or slope, curve of
the river in plan or the presence of “saddles” in the abutments, can
have a significant effect on embankment selection, e.g.:
 In narrow steep sided valleys there is restricted room for construction
vehicles and haul roads, favouring embankments with simple zoning,
e.g. concrete face rockfill;
 The curve of the river in plan, and changes in valley cross section, may
favour adoption of an upstream sloping core rather than central core (or
vice versa) to reduce the quantities of earthfill;
 Local changes in slope of the abutments may lead to differential
settlement and cracking, necessitating more extensive filter drains, or
favouring concrete face rockfill construction.

22

11
 Types of Embankment Dams – Selection:
Topography and relation to other structures
 The selection of embankment type and overall economics of a project
is determined with consideration of all components of the project, i.e.
embankment, spillway, river diversion outlet works etc. These
components are interrelated, e.g.:
 The diversion tunnel will be longer for an earthfill dam (with relatively
flat side slopes) than for a rockfill dam;
 The topography of the site, i.e. valley cross section or slope, curve of
the river in plan or the presence of “saddles” in the abutments, can
have a significant effect on embankment selection, e.g.:
 In narrow steep sided valleys there is restricted room for construction
vehicles and haul roads, favouring embankments with simple zoning,
e.g. concrete face rockfill;
 The curve of the river in plan, and changes in valley cross section, may
favour adoption of an upstream sloping core rather than central core (or
vice versa) to reduce the quantities of earthfill;
 Local changes in slope of the abutments may lead to differential
settlement and cracking, necessitating more extensive filter drains, or
favouring concrete face rockfill construction.

23

Types of Embankment Dams – Selection:

Time of Construction
 The time available for construction may influence the selection of
dam type, particularly if considered in relation to other factors such
as the climate, e.g. in a climate of well defined wet and dry seasons
it may be practicable to construct an earth and rockfill or earthfill
dam, but only over two dry seasons. A concrete face rockfill dam may
be constructed in lesser time by continuing to place rockfill in the wet
season.
 Foundation treatment and zoning details may also be influenced by
the time available for construction. For example, if constructing a
dam on a permeable soil foundation, cutoff may be achieved by a
cutoff wall at the upstream toe rather than a rolled earth cutoff under
the central core, so that the cutoff wall can be constructed at the
same time as the rest of the embankment.

24

12
 Types of Embankment Dams – Selection:
Staged Construction
 It is often economic to construct a dam in two or more stages, e.g.:
 In water supply, irrigation or hydropower projects, demand in the
early years can often be met with a lower dam and smaller
storage;
 In mine tailings dams, the storage required increases
progressively as the tailings are deposited in the dam.
 If staging is planned, this favours adoption of concrete face rockfill,
earth and rockfill with sloping upstream core, or possibly earthfill with
vertical (or sloping) drain and horizontal drain. Figures 8.11.

25

Types of Embankment Dams - Selection

26

13
 Types of Embankment Dams - Selection

27

Embankment Dams: Investigation, Design and

Construction

 There are three main steps of working in a dam project:

 Investigation,

 Design, and

 Construction.

 Each stage is very important in meeting the ultimate goal of the dam
 Individual works in these three steps are summarized as listed in
Table.1.1 with key words associated with them.

28

14
 Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Most of catastrophic failures of embankment dams causes by

overtopping of the reservoir water due to flooding or loss of free board.
 Despite embankment dams should not be designed to withstand erosive
action of water flow over the crest, case histories reveal that inadequate
capacity of spillway, that is, insufficient estimation of the amount of
flooding has often led to the failure of the embankment due to
overtopping.
 Failures of this type, however, can not be a decisive defect of
embankment dams, because the accumulation of available accurate data
of hydrology and the improvement of design method can readily settle
the problem.
 Other main factors to cause embankment failures are hydraulic erosion,
high pore-water pressure, earthquake forces and so forth. More than 50
percent of embankment failures are above all due to hydraulic erosion,
and remaining each several percent is caused by other respective
factors.

29

Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Most of catastrophic failures of embankment dams causes by

overtopping of the reservoir water due to flooding or loss of free board.

30

15
 Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Most of catastrophic failures of embankment dams causes by

overtopping of the reservoir water due to flooding or loss of free board.

31

Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Sliding due to Pore-Water Pressure

 An excessive and abrupt increase of pore-water pressure, such as the one
built-up during construction and the residual one due to rapid drawdown of
the reservoir, may cause sliding failures in embankment.
 In Fig.2.2, relatively high pore-water pressure was built-up in an earth dam,
which led to a sliding failure during construction.

32

16
 Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Sliding due to Pore-Water Pressure

 In Fig.2.3, distribution of pore-water pressure at a usual stationary flow has
changed during rapid drawdown, which caused a high excess pore-water
pressure in the upstream part of the embankment.

33

Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Seepage Failure (Hydraulic Fracture)

 When water flows passing through soil in an embankment and foundation,
seepage forces act on soil particles due to its viscosity. If seepage forces
acting in the soil are large enough as compared to the resisting forces based
on the effective earth pressure, erosion by quick sand takes place by
washing soil particles
 In Fig.2.4(a), one of actions of seepage through pervious foundation is
demonstrated, in which the uplift pressure acting on the impervious
foundation causes heaving near the toe of the embankment. Hydraulic
fracturing, quick sand and piping, can readily occur around the downstream
toe when the hydraulic gradient increases with the concentration of flow
lines, and the reduction in effective stresses is inevitable in the ground due
to the action of the upward seepage forces, as illustrated in Fig.2.4(b).

34

17
 Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Sliding due to Pore-Water Pressure

 In Fig.2.3, distribution of pore-water pressure at a usual stationary flow has
changed during rapid drawdown, which caused a high excess pore-water
pressure in the upstream part of the embankment.

35

Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 In an actual dam design, adequate drainage facilities such as filter

zones and drains are provided in the interior of the embankment, and
piping failures as stated above would not be expected to occur in
ordinary situations. One of unusual situations to be considered is the
generation of interior cracks in the impervious zone and foundation,
which is mainly caused by differential settlements during and after
construction, as described in the following.

36

18
 Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Differential Settlement, Deformation and Cracking

 Many types of differential settlement and associated severe deformation
such as open cracks appear in both dam body and base foundation, due
to compressibility of fill materials and foundation soils and/or their
relative rigidity. Fig.2.5 shows several patterns of differential settlement
and open cracks which dam engineers often encounter in the field.

37

Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Differential Settlement, Deformation and Cracking

 Many types of differential settlement and associated severe deformation
such as open cracks appear in both dam body and base foundation, due
to compressibility of fill materials and foundation soils and/or their
relative rigidity. Fig.2.5 shows several patterns of differential settlement
and open cracks which dam engineers often encounter in the field.

38

19
 Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Earthquake Damage
 Embankment failures due to earthquake excitation can be classified into two
groups. One is damages caused by liquefaction or softening of sand
foundation and the other is sliding and cracking of embankment body
resting on hard foundation. In the former case, high excess pore-water
pressure is generated during earthquake by the application of cyclic shear
stresses, and large deformation as well as vertical displacement develops in
the foundation. These deformations generally lead to catastrophic damages
due to overtopping, as shown in Fig.2.6.

39

Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

 Earthquake Damage
 According to the investigation reports on earthquake damages of actual
embankment dams and also to the experimental studies through large scale
shaking table tests on the dynamic response of earth and rockfill dams,
embankment failures caused by strong excitation are classified into several
patterns in their mechanism. Three distinct patterns of embankment failures
due to earthquake excitation are schematically illustrated in Fig.2.7, for
different types of embankment configuration.

40

20
 Embankment Dams: Failures and Damages

41

21