EARTHEN DAMS

Mr. V. P. Kumbhar
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
 INTRODUCTION
• Earthen dams are the most ancient type of embankment as they can be built with
natural materials available locally without processing.
• Unlike Gravity dams and Arch dams, earthen dams can be easily constructed on
any type foundations.
• Before development of Soil Mechanics, earthen dams were constructed on the
basis of experience. This led to the failure of various dams.

• Types of Earthen Dam:

• The earthen dams can be of following three types:
1. Homogeneous Embankment Type
2. Zoned Embankment Type
3. Diaphragm Type
1. Homogeneous Embankment Type:
 It is the simplest type of an earthen embankment dam.
 It consists of a single material and is homogeneous
throughout.
 Sometimes a blanket of relatively impervious material is used
on the upstream face.
 This type of dam is constructed where there is only one type
of material available (economically / locally).
 Such a section is used for low to moderately high dams.
 Such dam poses a problem of seepage, and huge sections are
required to make it safe against piping, instability, etc.
 For smaller sections, an internal drainage system is added,
such as a horizontal drainage filter, rock toe, etc.
 The internal drainage system keeps the top seepage line
(phreatic line)well within the body of dam and hence,
steeper slopes can be provided.
2. Zoned Embankment Type:
 Zoned embankments are usually provided with a central impervious core, covered
by a comparatively pervious transition zone, which is finally surrounded by a much
more pervious outer zone.
 The central core checks the seepage.
 The transition zone prevents piping through cracks which may develop in the core.
 The outer zone gives stability to the central impervious fill and also distribute the
load over a large area of foundation.
 This types of embankments are widely constructed today.
 Materials of the zones are selected depending on their availability.
 Clay, inspite of being impervious, shrinks and swells too much. Due to this reason,
clay is sometimes mixed with fine sand or gravel, and this mixture is used as a
central impervious core.
 Fine sand or fine gravels are used as the materials in the transition zone.
 Freely draining materials such as coarse sand and gravels are used in the outer
shell.
3. Diaphragm Type:
 These dams have a thin impervious core, which is surrounded by earth
or rock fill.
 The impervious core is called a diaphragm.
 It is made masonry, concrete, steel, impervious soil or timber.
 It acts as a water barrier to prevent seepage through the dam.
 The diaphragm is placed either at –
i. The center as a central vertical core, OR
ii. The upstream face as a blanket.
 If the foundation is pervious, the diaphragm must be extended upto
the bedrock or very impervious foundation material.
 If the thickness of the core at any elevation is less than 10 meters, the
dam is Diaphragm type.
 If the thickness of the core at any elevation is greater than 10 meters,
the dam is Zoned Embankment type.
COMPONENTS OF EARTHEN DAMS
AND THEIR FUNCTION
1. Hearting (Core):
 It forms the central section, built with impervious materials like clay, etc.
 It is compacted at OMC.
 It provides water tightness to the dam and adequate shear resistance
against slipping.
 It controls the seepage flow through the body of the dam.

2. Shell (Casing):
 It forms the outer portion of the dam.
 It is constructed with murum, soft rock, or sand and gravel, etc.
 It is compacted at its OMC.
 The shell provides a cover to the core, protecting it from cracking.
 It helps in distributing the load of the dam over a large foundation, thus
providing stability to dam.
 It also helps in drainage.
3. Transition filters:
 As the core contains fine material and the shell contains coarse material so
there is a chance that both may get mixed into each other.
 These filters are installed in the dam body to stop the mixing of materials
from either sides into each other.
 Transition filters are made of material which is semi-pervious in nature.

4. Pitching (wave protection riprap):

 Pitching of 30 cm to 45 cm is provided by laying dressed stones of 30 cm
size and 4-5 kg weight on a upstream slope.
 It prevents the erosion of materials on the upstream face caused due to
wave action and protects the slope from sudden drawdown.
5. Turfing (riprap protection) :
 It is planting of special type of grass (harali) on the downstream face of the
dam.
 It protects the downstream slope from eroding action of rainwater.

6. Horizontal filter (Internal filter):

 It is usually used if dam body is made of impervious material.
 The dam body may contain moisture already.
 If this water remains in the dam body, pore water pressure is developed
and effective pressure is reduced.
 So to remove this water, internal drain is used.
7. Toe filter:
 The major function of the rock toe is to protect the lower part of
downstream embankment.
8. Cut-off trench:
 It is a trench dug to fill it with impervious material e.g. Rich Concrete.
 It prevents seepage of water through the foundation.

9. Freeboard:
 To avoid overtopping of dam, free board is used.

10. Crest:
 It is the most upper part of the dam which divides the upstream face
and the downstream face.
 Its objective is to give access to vehicles over it.

11. Berm:
 Berms are offsets provided on the downstream at 8 to 10 m vertical
interval of 3 to 5 m width.
 The objective of the berm is to collect rainwater and dispose it off
safely.
 To provide roadways for vehicles.
 To reduce the velocity of rain falling on the slope.
 METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION

• There are two methods of constructing

earthen dams:
1. Hydraulic Fill method
2. Rolled Fill method
1. Hydraulic-fill method:
 In this method, dam body is constructed by excavating and
transporting soils by using water.
 Pipes called flumes, are laid along the outer edge of the embankment.
 The soil materials are mixed with water and pumped into these flumes.
 The slush is discharged through the outlets in the flumes at suitable
intervals along the lengths.
 The slush, flowing towards the center of the bank, tend to settle down.
 The coarser particles get deposited near the outer edge while the fines
get carried and settle to the center, forming a zoned embankment.
 Since the fill is saturated when placed, high pore pressure develops in
the core material, and the stability of dam must be checked for these
pressures.
 This type of embankment is susceptible to settlement over long
periods, because of slow drainage from the core.
 Thus, this method is seldom used these days.
2. Roll-filled method:
 The embankment is constructed by placing suitable soil
materials in thin layers (15 to 30 cm) and compacting them
with rollers.
 The soil is brought to the site from burrow pits and spread
by bulldozers in layers.
 Ordinary road rollers can be used for low embankments
whereas power-operated rollers are required for high
embankments.
 The best compaction can be obtained at a moisture
content somewhere near the optimum moisture content.
 Compaction of coarse gravels is done by vibrating
equipments.
 Mode of Failures of Earthen Dam
• Earthen dams are less rigid and hence more susceptible to failures.
• The various causes leading to the failures of earthen dams can be grouped into
following groups-
1. Hydraulic failures
2. Seepage failures
3. Structural failures

• Hydraulic failures
• About 40% of earthen dams fails.
• The failures may occurs due to following reason-
a) By Overtopping
 If design flood is under estimated or if spillway is of insufficient capacity or if
spillway gates are not properly operated.
 Sufficient freeboard should be provided as an additional safety measure.
b) Erosion of Upstream Face
 Due to wind the waves are developed near the top water surface.
 These waves try to notch-out the soil from the upstream face, which may
sometimes cause the slip of the upstream slope.
 Upstream stone pitching or riprap should be provided to avoid such failure.
c) Cracking due to frost action
 Frost in the upper portion of the dam may cause heaving and cracking of the soil
with dangerous seepage and consequent failures.
 Provide additional 1.5m freeboard for dam in low temperature area.
d) Erosion of Downstream Face by Gully Formation
 Erosive action of moving water occurs on downstream face due to heavy rains.
 It may leads to formation of gullies on downstream face which leads to failures.
 It can be avoided by proper maintenance like filing the cuts time to time in rainy
season, by grassing the slopes and by providing berms at suitable height.
e) Erosion of Downstream Toe
 Downstream toe may get eroded due to two reasons-
i. The erosion due to cross currents that may comes from spillway buckets
ii. The erosion due to tail water
 Side walls of spillway must be of sufficient height and length to avoid cross current
flow towards earthen embankment
 By providing a downstream slope pitching or riprap upto height above tail water
depth.
• Seepage Failure
• More that 1/3 earthen dams fails.
• Uncontrolled seepage through dam body or foundation may leads failures of dam.
• Piping is the progressive erosion and subsequent removal of soil grains.
• Sloughing is the progressive removal of soil from wet downstream face.
a) Piping through Foundation
 When highly permeable cavities or fissures or strata of coarse sand and gravel are
present in the foundation of the dam, water any start seeping through them at high
rate.
 This concentrated flow at high gradient may erode the soil, which results rush of
water and soil creating hollows below the foundation.
 The dam sink down in to the hollows, causing its failures.
b) Piping through Dam Body
 When the channels of concentrated flow get developed in the dam body due to
faulty construction, insufficient compaction cracks etc., soil may removed.
 This leading to formation of hollows in the dam body, and subsequent subsidence
of the dam.
 It is generally developed near the pipe conduits passing through dam body.
• Sloughing of Downstream Toe
 It starts when the downstream toe becomes saturated and get eroded, producing a
small slump or miniature slide.
 It leaves relatively steep face which becomes saturated by the seepage from the
reservoir and slumps again, forming more unstable face.
 The process continues till the remaining portion of the dam is too thin to withstand
the horizontal water pressure, leading to sudden failure of the dam.
• Structural Failures
• About 25% dam fails.
• These are generally caused by shear failures, causing slides.
• Foundation Slides
 When the foundation of the dams are made of soft soils, such as fine silt, soft clay,
etc., the entire dam may slides over the foundations.
 In this type of failure, the top of the embankment gets cracked and subsides, the
lower slope moves outward forming large mud waves near the heel.
• Slide in Embankments
 When embankment slopes are too steep for the strength of the soil, it may slide
causing dam failure.
 The upstream slope is slide when sudden drawdown of the reservoir and the
downstream slope is most likely to slide, when reservoir is full.
 These failures generally occurs due to development of excessive unaccounted pore
pressures which reduce the shearing strength of the dam.
 DESIGN CRITERIA FOR EARTHEN DAM
1. A fill of sufficiently low permeability should be developed out of
the available materials, serving the purpose with minimum cost.
2. Burrow pits should be as close to the dams as possible.
3. Sufficient spillway and outlet capacities should be provided so as
to avoid the possibility of overtopping during design floods.
4. Sufficient freeboard must be provided for wind set-up, wave
action, frost action and earthquake motions.
5. The seepage line should remain well within the downstream face
of the dam.
6. A conservation dam must be as water-tight as possible. Seepage
through a flood control dam causes no harm until there is piping
in foundation or embankment.
7. The upstream face should be properly protected against wave
action and the downstream face against rains.
8. The portion of the dam downstream of the impervious core
should be properly drained by providing horizontal filter drain or
toe drain.
9. The upstream and downstream slopes should be so designed as to
be stable under worst condition of loading. These critical
conditions occur for the u/s slope during sudden drawdown of
reservoir, and for d/s slope during steady seepage under full
reservoir.
10. The u/s and d/s slope should be flat enough, so as to provide
sufficient base width at the foundation level, such that the
maximum shear stress developed remains well below the
corresponding maximum shear strength of the soil.
11. We know that consolidation of the soil does not take place
instantaneously when the compaction is done. It takes place slowly as
the excess pore water goes out and load is transferred to the soil grains.
Especially in fine grained soil, consolidation process is slow. It therefore
becomes necessary in such cases to provide an additional height of the
fill. After consolidation, the embankment will be of desired height.
12. Since the stability of embankment and foundation is very critical during
construction or even after construction, due to development of
excessive pore pressure and consequent reduction in shear strength of
soil, the embankment slopes must remain safe under this critical
condition also.
 Phreatic Line
• It is also called as line of seepage or saturation line.
• Seepage occurs through the body of all earthen dams and also through their
pervious foundations.
• The amount of seepage has to be controlled in all conservation dams and the
effects of seepage (position of phreatic line) has to be controlled for all dams, to
avoid their failures.
• The line within the dam section below which there are positive hydrostatic pressure
in the dam.
• The hydrostatic pressure on phreatic line is equals to atmospheric pressure .
• The hydrostatic pressure above phreatic line is negative due to presence of capillary
fringe. The insignificant flow through the capillary fringe leads to greater shear
strength, because capillary tension in water leads to increased intergranular
pressure.
• Below the phreatic line, the appreciable flow through the dam body reduces the
effective weight of soil, thus reduces the shear strength of the soil due to pore
pressure.
• Therefore it is essential to determine the position of the phreatic line.
• Importance of phreatic line determination
• It gives us a divide line between dry and submerged soil for computation of shear
strength of soil.
• It represents top streamline and hence it helps us in drawing the flow net.
• Determination of stream line helps us to ensure that it does not cut the
downstream face of the dam which necessary for preventing softening or sloughing
of the dam.

• Equation of base parabola

 Seepage Control in Earthen Dam
• Seepage Control through Embankment:
• Drainage filter (Drains) are provided in order to control the seepage water.
• It reduces the pore pressure in the downstream portion of the dam which increase
the stability of dam and permits steep slope.
• It also checks piping by migration of particles.
• It consist of graded coarse materials in which seepage is collected and safely
discharged.
• The following drains are most commonly used –
• Rock Toe or Toe filter
 It consists of stones of size varying from 15 to 20cm.
 Height of rock toe is kept between 25% to 35% of reservoir head.
 Its height must be sufficiently higher than the tail water depth.
 Toe filter is provided as a transition zone
between homogeneous embankment
and rock toe, consists of three layers
of fine sand, coarse sand and gravel.
• Horizontal Blanket or Filter
 It extends inwards from the toe to the
center of the dam, upto a distance
varying from 25% to 100% of that
distance.
 Generally its length equals to three
times the height of the dam is sufficient.
 The blanket should be properly
designed and should be sufficiently
pervious to drain off effectively.
• Chimney Drain
 When horizontal drain becomes
insufficient, in such a case a vertical
filter is placed along horizontal filter.
 it intercepts seeping water effectively,
such arrangement is termed as chimney
drain.
• Seepage Control through Foundations
• The amount of water entering the pervious foundations, can be controlled by
adopting the following measures-
• Impervious Cutoff
 It made of concrete or sheet piles.
 It can be provided at the heel of the earthen dam.
 It should extend through the entire depth of the pervious foundation, to achieve
effective control on seeping water.
 Partial cutoff may be provide for large depth pervious foundation.
• Relief Wells and Drain Trenches
• When large scale seepage takes place through the pervious foundation, overlain by
thin impervious layer, there is possibility that the water may boil up near the toe of
the dam.

• It can be controlled by constructing relief wells or drain trenches through the upper
impervious layer, to permit to escape of seeping water.
• It may also controlled by providing D/S berms beyond the toe of the dam, only when
the weight of the overlying material is sufficient to resist the upward pressure.