Numerical analyses of embankment dams containing plastic concrete cut-off walls using finite difference method (A case study: The Karkheh Embankment Dam)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran.
Research Article
Global Journal of Engineering and Technology Advances, 2021, 09(03), 143–153.
Article DOI: 10.30574/gjeta.2021.9.3.0176
Publication history:
Received on 24 November 2021; revised on 29 December 2021; accepted on 31 December 2021
Abstract:
In this paper, numerical analyses have been performed on the Karkheh embankment dam with a clayey core and plastic concrete cut-off wall during construction, impounding, and permanent seepage stages. The dam has 127 meters height and is located in a high seismic hazard zone in Iran. Different stages of construction, water impounding, and steady state seepage were modelled and analyzed using the hyperbolic and Mohr-Coulomb models with the two dimensional finite difference method (FDM). So, nonlinear analyses were performed using FLAC 2D to investigate the settlements and the pore water pressure changes in different zones of the dam during above-mentioned stages and the results were compared to those of the other studies. The results show that at the end of the construction stage, the maximum settlement equal to 1.45m occurs inside the clay core at the height of 65m. Then, after impounding of the reservoir and steady state stage, the maximum magnitude of the horizontal deformations occurs in the downstream of the dam equal to 0.55m; however, these magnitudes reach to 0.17m at the crest of the dam. Moreover, it was shown that the maximum horizontal displacement of the plastic concrete cut-off wall has happened at the top of the wall in the clay core which is in a good agreement with the other studies’ result.
Keywords:
Embankment Dam; Finite Difference Method; Plastic Concrete; Cut-off Wall
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