Abstract
Suffusion is one of the main internal erosion processes in earth structures and their foundations. The assessment of this phenomenon can be difficult since in-situ geotechnical properties of soils are variable and uncertain. By means of a case study, this paper aims at presenting a general method to assess the suffusion potential of compacted impervious cores of zoned embankment dams. First, the suffusion susceptibility of the compacted layers forming the analysed dam core is estimated from four soil parameters that can be easily measured in situ or in laboratory during construction. Second, the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the compacted layers is evaluated based on the amount of fines content and on available construction data. Moreover, the power dissipated by seepage flow is inferred based on the saturated hydraulic conductivity and simplified fluid boundary conditions. Finally, the combined consideration of erosion resistance index and dissipated energy allows the identification of zones characterized by a relatively larger suffusion potential.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Region Pays de la Loire and Hydro Québec for providing financial and practical support for this work through the RI-Adaptclim project.
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Zhang, L., Gelet, R., Marot, D., Smith, M., Konrad, JM. (2019). Assessing Suffusion Susceptibility of Soils by Using Construction Data: Application to a Compacted Till Dam Core. In: Bonelli, S., Jommi, C., Sterpi, D. (eds) Internal Erosion in Earthdams, Dikes and Levees. EWG-IE 2018. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering , vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99423-9_28
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