EARTH

Title:- DesignEN
of earthen dam.
DAM
Introduction:-
A dam may be defined as an obstruction or a barrier,
constructed across the river, stream or valley to retain water for making
big water body, behind. The side of the dam where water is stored to
form a pool of water is known as upstream side, while the other side of
dam is known as downstream side.
An earth fill dam or earthen dam is constructed by using soil that is
pounded solidly. These dams are constructed in those areas where
foundation is not strong enough to bear the weight of concrete dam, or
where earth fill materials are easily available for construction of dam.

(A) Types of earthen dam

Based on the construction method, the earthen dam may be classified
into following two types:
1. Roll fill dams
2. Hydraulic fill dams.

1. Roll fill dam:-This type of earthen dam is the form of several

compacted layers. To construct the roll fill dam ,the earth material are excavated
from the burrow pits and transported to the construction site by means of suitable
earth moving machine such as truck or scraper. The soil are then spread in a
uniform thickness by bulldozer and water is sprinkled for maintaining the proper
moisture content to achieve a better compaction, because presence of proper
moisture content , makes the compaction very well. Now the spread soil layer is
thoroughly compacted by mechanical rote, so that the preceding layers can be
bonded.
1.1 Types of roll fill dam:- There are three type of roll fill dam.
1. Homogeneous type,
2. Zoned type,
3. Diaphragm type.

1. Homogeneous Type Earthen Dam:-

Fig. 1. Homogeneous type earthen dam

 A homogeneous type earthen dam is made of only one kind of material
which must be impervious in nature to prevent the seepage.
 These types of dams are constructed for low to moderate heights.
 The u/p side slope is kept relatively more flatter to avoid the sloughing
problem during sudden drawdown of the reservoir water level.
 The d/s side slope is also kept flat enough for making slope stable against
sloughing, when the dam section is saturated to a high level.
 A purely homogeneous section can be replaced by a modified
homogeneous section, which consists of an internal drainage system in the form
of horizontal filter called as drainage filter to control the seepage of water through
the dam and also to permit a steeper slope to the dam.
2. Zoned Type Earthen Dam:-

Fig. 2 zoned type earth dam

 The zoned type earth fill dam is made of more than one fill materials.
 In this dam, an impervious core is flanked in the Centre by using
considerably more impervious material.
 A pervious zone or layer is also formed around the impervious core.
 A suitable drainage system is also provided in the form of horizontal drain
or rock toe in the dam.
 The previous zone can be formed around the horizontal drain or a rock toe
in the dam. The pervious zone can be formed by using the materials such as
sand, gravel, rocks or mixture of these materials.
3. Diaphragm Type Earthen dam:-

Fig.3 Diaphragm type earthen dam

 This is a modified form of homogeneous dam in which entire section of
embankment is constructed using the pervious material like, sand, gravel or
rock.
 A thin diaphragm of impervious material is also placed at the Centre of
dam section. This diaphragm checks the flow of seepage water from the dam.
The impervious material such as clay, stones etc. are used for constructing the
diaphragm.
 The position of diaphragm can be fixed either at the Centre of the dam in
the form of Centre vertical core or in the form of blanket towards upstream side.
Design Criteria of Earthen Dam:-
The design of earthen dam should be
done on the following criterion.
1. Keep pleasant appearance of surrounding areas.
2. Construction of required satisfying structures.
3. Minimum disturbance of area ecology.
4. Excavation depths and tools available.
5. Esthetic considerations.
6. Economy.

Required Data:-
1. Hydrologic data: max storage, normal storage, dead storage, reservoir water
surface elevation, flood hydrograph.
2. Topography.
3. Geology.
4. Soil testing.
5. Climate.
6. Material testing.

Design of Earthen Dam:-

The earthen dam consists of following parameters for
design
1. Top width
2. Free board
3. Casing or outer shell
4. Cutoff trench
5. Central impervious core
6. Downstream drainage systems.
1. Top Width: - It depends on following point.
a. Nature of the fill material.
b. Height and importance of the dam.
c. Practicability of the dam.
d. Protection against earthquake shock and wave action.
H
W= 5 + 3 (for very low dam)
W= 0.55√ H + 0.2H (for dam lesser than 30 m height)
1
W= 1.65(H +1.5) (for dam higher than 30 m)
3

Where H is the height of dam.

2. Free Board:- It is the vertical distance between the top of the dam
and design water level in the reservoir. It can be classified as
a. Normal free board:- it is specific term refers to the difference in elevation
between the top of dam and the normal reservoir level.
b. Minimum Free Board:- The minimum free board is the difference in
elevation between the top of the dam and the maximum water level in the
reservoir.
Surcharge head:- The difference between normal and minimum free
boards.
Sufficient free board must be given to the height of the dam to avoid the chances
of overturning. Table.1 shows the recommended values of free board,
depending on the nature of spillway and height of dam.
 Table1. Recommended values of free board ,given by U.S.B.R.
Nature of Height of dam Free board
spillway
Free Any Min 2 m and max 3 m over the max
flood level
Controlled Less than 60m 2.5 m above the top of gates.
Controlled Over 60 m 3 m above the top of gates.

3. Casing or outer shell:- The main function of casing or outer

shell in the earthen dam, is to provide stability and creating protection
for the core. It is constructed with the previous materials, which are
not cracked due to direct exposure of the sunlight.
Regarding the u/p and d/s side slope of the embankment, these are
based on the available material, foundation condition, dam height
and types of dam, also.
Table 2. Recommended side slope of dam given by Terazaghi
S.No. Types of material u/s slope d/s slope
1. Homogeneous well graded 2.5:1 2:1
material

2. Homogeneous coarse silt 3:1 2.5:1

3. Homogeneous silt clay or clay
(a) H less than 15 m
 (b) H more than 15 m 2.5:1 2:1
Sand or sand and gravel with clay 3:1 2.5:1
4. core 3:1 2.5:1
Sand or sand and gravel with R.C.
core wall
5. 2.5:1 2:1

4. Central Impervious Core:-It depends on the

following points;
a) Tolerable limit of seepage loss.
b) Max width of dam section.
c) Types of material available for core construction.
d) Design criteria of purposed filter etc.
5. Cutoff Trench:- The main function of the cutoff trench in
earth fill dam, to reduce the loss of stored water in the reservoirs, from the
seepage flow through the foundation and its abutments, furthermore it also
prevents the sub-surface erosion caused by piping action. The following
recommendation has been made on cutoff trench:
a. The alignment of cutoff trench should be such that, its central line should fall
within the u/s face of the impervious core and it should also be fixed into the rock
or continuous impervious soil strata.
b. Bottom width of the cutoff trench should be such that, it can provided a
sufficient working space for compaction equipment and also be able to make the
dam safe against piping. Minimum width of cutoff trench is 4m recommended.
W= h - d
Where,
W =bottom width of cutoff trench
h = reservoir head above the ground surface and
d = depth of cutoff trench, below the ground surface.
c. The cutoff trench should also be extended to the depth about 1 m into the
continuous impervious sub-stratum below the foundation.
d. The cutoff trench either side should be extended up to crest of the impervious
core of the flank.
Causes of failure of earthen dam
An earthen dam may be failed in following ways
1. Hydraulic failures 40%
2. Seepage failures 30%
3. Structural failures 25%
4. External causes 5%
1. HYDRAULIC FAILURES:-
a) Overtopping (design level in underestimated)
b) Erosion of u/s face (wave action –height)
c) Cracking in upper portion of dam due to frost action (additional free board
allowance up to 1.5 m)
d) Erosion of d/s face due to rain action (maintenance –berms-grass)
2. SEEPAGE FAILURES:-
a) Uncontrolled seepage (causes scour through d/s wet zone- needs adequate
filters)
b) Piping (through dam foundation –either prevention or control of
percolation may dam cause subsidence)
3. STRUCTURAL FAILURES:-
Structural failure mainly caused by following reasons:
a) Upstream and d/s failures due to formation of excessive pore pressure.
b) Upstream failure due to sudden drawdown in the reservoir water level.
c) Downstream stream failure at the time of full reservoir.
d) Foundation slide.
e) Failure of dam due to earthquake.
f) Failure of dam due to unprotected side slope.
g) Failure of dam due to damage caused by burrowing animals.
h) Failure of dam due to damage caused water soluble materials.

Fig4 structural failure at d/s

Downstream drainage system in earthen dam:-
The d/s drainage is
performed by providing the filter materials in earthen dam. The nature of the
filter material should always be more pervious than the general fill material.
Main function:
 The filter in the dam reduces the pore water pressure at the d/s stream face
of the dam, thereby the stability of the dam gets increase.
 Filter also controls the piping action to a great extent by checking the
migration of soil particles.
It used in the dam are of following three type:
1. Toe drains
2. Horizontal blanket
3. Chimney drains
1. Toe drains:- these drains are provided in homogeneous type earthen dams
to prevent sloughing at the d/s toe of the dam.

Fig 5 Toe drain

Horizontal blanket:- It is widely used in the earthen dams of moderate height
for d/s drainage work. This type of drainage system has disadvantages of grater
stratification the vertical direction.
3.chimney drain:- It is most suitable drain, used to prevent the problems of
stratification and horizontal flow of seepage water, as normally observed in case
of horizontal blanket. Chimney drains are mainly used in higher homogeneous
dams.