Stability of the earth dam slope during reservoir drawdown

Abstract

Introduction. One of the possible factors acting on the stability of the slopes of an earth dam is the change of water levels in the reservoir or the downstream reservoir. A hazardous event can be a rapid drawdown of the reservoir due to, for example, an emergency or a technological necessity. Examples of collapse of ground dam slopes caused by changes in water level in the reservoir are given, as well as the results of estimation of the effect of reservoir drawdown on the stability of the upstream slope. A homogeneous enclosing dam made of loam on a non-rock base with a height of 29 m and upper and lower slopes of 1:3.5 was considered. The research was conducted for two cases of drawdown: slow drawdown with the rate of vertical water level decrease v = 0.25 m/day and fast (emergency) drawdown with the rate of v = 4.4 m/day. Materials and methods. Calculations of filtration of soil dam for steady and unsteady modes and assessment of stability of the dam slope are carried out by numerical method of finite elements using PLAXIS software package. The research statement and theoretical foundations, laid in calculations of filtration and stability of slopes are given. Results. Researches have shown that at decrease in a water level of a reservoir with the big speed the danger of infringement of stability of a slope increases. Conclusions. According to the practice of designing, the evaluation of change in the upper slope stability coefficient of the uniform ground protecting dike taking into account decrease of the water level in the reservoir taking into account filtration forces of unsteady filtration has been carried out. Variants with different rates of drawdown are considered. It is established that at high rates of drawdown the coefficient of slope stability decreases. The obtained results testify to necessity of taking into account filtration forces of unsteady filtration in evaluation of slope stability when designing homogeneous dams made of low-permeable soils.