Chapter-3

Embankment Dam

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Conditions favoring the selection of an
embankment dam
 Significant thickness of soil deposits overlying
bedrock
 Weak or soft bedrock which would not be able to
resist high stresses from a concrete dam,
 Abutments of either deep soil deposits or weak
rock,
 Availability of a suitable location for a spillway,
and
 Availability of sufficient and suitable soils from
required excavation or nearby borrow areas.
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 Embankment Dam

Embankment Dams are dam constructed of natural

materials excavated or obtained near the dam site
 Are non rigid dam which resists the forces exerted up
on it mainly by its shear strength.
 The two main forms of embankment dams are
1) Earth (earth fill) dams made predominantly of earth
or soil.
2) Rock fill dams made predominantly of quarried
rock.
However a composite earth and rock fill type of
embankment dams are also being widely used.

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 Embankment Dam
 Earth dams are further divided into the following
types:
a) Homogeneous earth dam, and
b) Zoned earth dam.
Homogeneous earth dams: are constructed entirely or
almost entirely of one type of earth material (exclusive
of slope protection).
 A homogeneous earth dam is usually built when only
one type of material is economically available and/or
the height of dam is not very large.

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 Embankment Dam

Zoned earth dam: however, contains materials of

different kinds in different parts of the embankment
 Is the most common type of an earth dam due to an
economic & more stable design of the dam.

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 Embankment Dam

Diaphragm embankment type: Bulk of the

embankment is constructed of pervious material
and a thin diaphragm of impermeable material
is provided to check the seepage.

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 Embankment Dam

Rock fill Dam: the designation ‘rock fill

embankment’ is appropriate where over 50% of
the fill material may be classified as rock pieces.
 It is an embankment which uses large size rock
pieces to provide stability and impervious
membrane to provide water tightness.
 Rock fill embankments employing a thin u/s
membrane are referred to as decked rock fill
dams.
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 Homogeneous dam

Modified homogeneous

With rock toe

With horizontal blanket

Zoned Earth Dam Diaphragm embankment 12

 Causes of Failure of Earth Dams
• Three main classes of failure:
1. Hydraulic failures : 40%
2. Seepage failures : 30%
3. Structural failures: 30%
Hydraulic Failures: Hydraulic failures include the
following:
a. Overtopping
b. Erosion of U/S face
c. Erosion of D/S face
d. Erosion of D/S toe
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Seepage failures: Seepage failures may be due to:
 Piping through the body of the dam
 Piping through the foundation
 Conduit leakage
 Sloughing of downstream toe

Structural Failures: Structural failures may be due to the following

reasons:
a. Upstream and Downstream slope failures due to pore pressures
b. Upstream slope failure due to sudden draw down
c. Down stream slope failure during full reservoir condition.
d. Foundation slide: Spontaneous liquefaction
e. Failure by spreading
f. Failure due to Earth quake
g. Slope protection failures
h. Failure due to damage caused by burrowing animals
i. Damage caused by Water soluble materials 14
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 Criteria for Safe Design of Earth Dam
 An earth dam must be safe and stable during phases of
construction and operation of the reservoir.
 The practical criteria for the design of earth dams may be
stated briefly as follows.
No overtopping during occurrence of the inflow design flood.
a. appropriate design flood
b. Adequate spillway
c. Sufficient outlet works
d. Sufficient free board
No seepage failure
a. Phreatic (seepage) line should exit the dam body safely
without sloughing downstream face.
b. Seepage through the body of the dam, foundation and
abutments should be controlled by adapting suitable
measures. 19
 The dam and foundation should be safe against piping
failure.
 There should be no opportunity for free passage of water
from U/S to D/S both through the dam and foundation.
No Structural failure
a. Safe U/S & D/S slope during construction
b. Safe U/S slope during sudden draw down condition.
c. Safe D/S slope during steady seepage condition
d. Foundation shear stress within the safe limits.
e. Earth quake resistant dam
 Proper slope protection against wind & rain drop erosion.
 Proper drainage
 Economic section

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 Design of Earth Dams
Design includes selection of:
Top width
Free board
Casing or outer shells
Central impervious core
Cut-off trench
Downstream drainage system.
 Top Width, b
 Selection depends on
Nature of the embankment materials
Height of the structure
Importance of the structure
Width of highway on the top of the dam
Practicability of construction
Protection against earthquake forces.
 Some empirical equations suggest:
 Free board, F
 Is the vertical distance between the horizontal
crest of the embankment and the reservoir level.
 USBR recommendation of free board

Nature of Height of Free Board

spillway dam
Free Any Min. 2m and max. 3m over the
maximum flood level

Controlled Less than 60 2.5 above the top of gates

Controlled Over 60m 3m above the top gates
 Casing or Outer Shells
 The function of casing or outer shells is to impart
stability and protect the core.
Dam Slope
 The design slopes of the upstream and downstream
embankments may vary widely, depending on the
character of the materials available, foundation
conditions and the height of the dam.
 The slopes also depend up on the type of the dam
(i.e. homogeneous, zoned or diaphragm).
 The upstream slope may vary from 2:1 to as flat as
4:1 for stability.
 The usual downstream slopes are 2:1, where
embankment is impervious
 Seepage Analysis
Is used to:
 Determine the quantity of water passing through the body of
the dam and foundation.
 Obtain the distribution of pore water pressure.
Assumptions in seepage analysis:
 The rolled embankment and the natural soil foundation of
the earth dam are incompressible porous media. The size of
the pore spaces do not change with time, regardless of water
pressure
 The seeping water flows under a hydraulic gradient which is
due only to gravity head loss, or Darcy’s law for flow through
porous medium is valid.
 The hydraulic boundary conditions at entry and exit are
known.
 Laplace equation for two dimensional flows

• Consider only two dimensional flows

The quantity of water entering the element is equal
to the quantity of water leaving it Hence, we get

v x v y
  0....................1 This is the continuity equation
x y
h
• Darcy’s law v x  K x ix  K x *
x
...............2
h
VY  kY I Y  K y .................3
y
Where, h = hydraulic head under which water flows.
Kx and Ky are coefficient of permeability in x and y direction.
 Substituting (2) and (3) in (1), we get  2 K x h   2 ( K y .h)
  0.................4
x 2 y 2
For an isotropic soil, Ky = Kx = K
 2h  2h
Hence we get from eq. (4)  0
x 2
y 2
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 • Substituting velocity potential =  = K*h , we get
 2  2
  0.................5 This is the Laplace equation of flow in
x 2
y 2

two dimensions.

The solution of Eq. 5 can be obtained by

analytical methods
graphical method
experimental methods
The solution gives two sets of curves, know as equipotential lines
and stream lines (or flow lines), mutually orthogonal to each other,
as shown in Fig. below

Figure : Flow net 27

 Computation of rate of seepage from flow net

 Let: b and L be the width and length of the field.

h = head drop through the field.
q = discharge passing via the flow channel.
h = total head causing flow
= difference between u/s and d/s heads
 Then, from Darcy’s law of flow through soils:

If Nd = total number of potential drops in the complete flow net,

Hence the total discharge through the complete flow
net is given by

Where Nf = total number of flow channels in the net 28

• The field is square and hence b=l
Thus,

 This is the required expression for the discharge

passing through a flow net, and is valid only for
isotropic soils in which

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 Seepage discharge for anisotropic soil

• For such a case, the flow equation (4) becomes

 2h  2h
kx  ky  0 This is not a Laplace equation
x 2
y 2

Hence flow net can not be drawn directly

Rewriting

Let us put W/r xn is the new co-ordinate variable in the x - direction

Then the above equation becomes,

 2h  2h
 2  0..................6 This is in Laplace form
xn y
2

To plot the flow for such a case is plotted to a natural scale in the y-direction, but to a
transformed scale in the x-direction
All dimensions parallel to x- axis being reduced by multiplying by the factor

The flow net obtained for this transformed section will now be constructed in the
normal manner as if the soil were isotropic. 30
The actual flow net is then obtained by re- transforming the cross- section
including the flow net, back to the natural scale by multiplying the x- coordinates
by factor The actual flow net thus will not have orthogonal set of curves.

Field of transformed section will be a square one, while the field of actual
section (retransformed) will be a rectangular one having its length in x direction
equal to
times the width in y direction as shown in fig.

Let kx = permeability coefficient in x- direction, of the actual anisotropic

soil field.
K’ = equivalent permeability of the transformed field.
Then, for the transformed section

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• For the actual field,

• Since the quantity of flow is the same,

Hence the discharge is given by

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 Phreatic Line in Earth Dam
• Phreatic Line is the upper surface of the seepage
flow at which the pressure is atmospheric.

Figure: Phreatic line in Earth dam

Phreatic line for a homogeneous Earth dam with horizontal

Drainage blanket

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Graphical method
Steps:
• Starting point of base parabola is @ A AB = 0.3L
• F is the focal point
• Draw a curve passing through F center @ A
• Draw a vertical line EG which is tangent to the
curve
• EG is the directrix of the base parabola
• Plot the various points P on the parabola in such
a way that PF = PR
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 • Analytical method
PF = PR

From point A (known), x = b and y = h

Equation of parabola

Discharge through the body of Earth dam

From parabola equation,

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 Phreatic line for a dam with no filter

• General solution by Casagrande

Fig : Dam with no drainage filter.

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The procedure to draw the top flow line for dams with
horizontal under drainage would be as under:
 Take the starting point of the under drainage F as the focus
of the base parabola.
 Mark point A on the water surface (corrected entrance
point).
 The property of a parabola is that every point on it is
equidistant from its focus and directrix. Hence, the directrix
DH can be located by drawing an arc FH of radius BF with B
as centre to meet extended GE in H. The vertical through H
is the directrix. Let its distance from the focus F be S.
F is the origin.
 The vertex of the parabola, C, will be midway between F
and D. The base parabola will pass through Band C.
 Any point (x,y) on the parabola with focus F should be
equidistant from F as well as from directrix DH, Le.
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EB = 0.3 EG

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Exercise

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2. For the following section of Homogeneous earth dam:
i) Draw the phreatic line
ii) Calculate the seepage discharge per meter length
through the body of the dam if the coefficient of
permeability of the dam material is 6*10-5 m/sec
iii) Sketch the stream lines and equipotential lines

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