EARTH DAM

An earth dams are specially designed embankments more or less to impound water permanently.

Criteria for the use of earth dam

 Earth dams are normally employed for a number of reason
1. Availability of materials
2. Easier to handle by hand and great machineries (cheap labour)
3. Where foundation is too poor for rigid masonry dams

Disadvantages that impair the use of earth dams

1. They are not durable except strict and constant maintenance is ensured
2. A separate spill way is required

Technical requirement of an earth dam

A good earth dam must satisfy two criterion The dam must be

Hydraulic Failure

This can either be external or internal. Some of the major measures taken to prevent external
hydraulic failure are;

1. The dam must have enough spill way to safeguard against overtopping
2. Upstream and downstream face must be protected against external erosion by providing
grasses

The other measures taken to prevent internal hydraulic failure

i. The dam and foundation must be sufficiently impervious such that the loss of water is
minimal.
ii. There must be resistance to seepage erosion or piping by
- Providing sheet piling towards the downstream face of the dam
- Providing a layer of impervious material at the down stream face of the dam
- Design of filter
Structural Failure

Some of the prevailing forces that must be prevented in order to prevent structural failure in a
dam are:

i. The weight of the embankment must be such that the dam’s foundation can carry
ii. The foundation of the dam must be such that it can support the weight of the water
under the worst possible combination of max reservoir, seepage forces, ∆s in
reservoir level and earthquake acceleration

Earth dams are made up of three different parts

Foundations

Core/cutoff

Shell

Foundation

 This must have a sufficient bearing capacity to carry the dam load
 It must be such that the forces of seepage over time will not destroy it

Core and Cut off

Any soil that must be used for the core and cut off must have a permeability of less than 10-4m/s
(provided it is protected from piping by filters and does not develop swelling pressures.)

The thickness of core for clay material should range between 5-25% of the head and for silty
coarse other thickness should range between 30-50% of the head (the lower range and high value
for silty course is meant to minimize the erosion gradient)

NOTE: Cut off and core are normally made of earth material, steel sheet piling, concrete or a
curting of grout injected into the soil

Shell

Typical upstream slope Typical downstream slope

 a. Gravel and sandy gravel
2.5 (H) : (V) 2.5 (H) : 1 (V)

b. Micaceous Sandy silt

3.5 (H) : 1 (V) 3 (H) : 1 (V)

NOTE: The selections of material to be used for shell are done on the basis of strength and
availability.

Also that the following analysis are normally made

1. Stability analysis of the slope

2. Seepage analysis which is needed to obtained the flow net and neutral axes within the
embankment.

Ways of improving the stability of a dam

1. Providing berm or flat slope

2. By incorporating riprap or grass
3. By the Improvement of the soil strength through the use of composite materials
4. Improving weak zones in the foundation
5. Reducing stress through internal drainage design.

Determination of the welted face at the downstream sloping section of a dam

q = ak sin ß tan ß

a=d d2 H2
a=
co s cos2 sin 2

d = L + x + y + 0.3m
H = eight of water head

d = summation = L + x + y + 0.3m

ß0 ≤ 300

q = ak sin ß tan ß

Determine the quantity of seepage passing through a dam per year in the fig below given that:

K = 4x 10-7m/s
8m

H = 18m

M = 30
18 20
1.3 Y
x = 8m
2

y = 3m
ß = tan-1 (½)

= 26.60

d = L + x + y + 0.3m
 = 40 + 8 + 3 + 0.3 (30)

d = 60m

d d2 H2
a=
co s cos
2
sin
2

60 602 182
a=
co s 2 6 .6 c o s 2 2 6 .6 sin 2 2 6 .6

= 6 7 .11 (6 7 .11 ) 2 (4 0 .2 ) 2

= 6 7 .11 4 5 0 3 .7 5 1 6 1 6 .0 4

= 6 7 .11 2 8 8 7 .7 1

= 6 7 .11 5 3 .7 4
a = 1 3 .3 7 m

q = ak sin ß tan ß

= 13.37 x 4 x x 10-7 sin 26.6 tan 6.6

q = 1.2 x 10-6 m2/s

Calculating for 1 yr (60 x 60 24 365)

(31536000)

q (1yr) = 1.2 x 10-6 x 31536000

= 3.7 843 m3/yr

Components of an Earth Dam

The component of an earth dam are shown in Fig. 4,4 a. the

 (a) Parts of an earth dam

(b) Central Core (c) Upstream Slopping Core

(d) Homogenous