Numerical Modeling of Embankment Dams in Liquefiable Soils During Earthquakes
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Date
2022-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopia has built several embankment dams up to the present day for different purposes.
Some dams are situated in the rift valley, which is highly susceptible to high earthquake
natural disasters. Dynamic loads induced by earthquakes are often major factors in the
design of earth dams founded on liquefiable soil. Earthquake-induced stresses are major
factors in determining the angles of the dam slopes and significantly influence the
selection of materials, the zoning of the dam, and the construction method. These have
taken a great attention to dams constructed from loose or medium dense saturated
cohesionless soils and subjected to strong ground shaking. This project aims to simulate
the effect of earthquake shaking on the stability of the embankment dam on liquefiable
soil using the finite element method-based state-of-the-art software package, Geo-Slope
software. The numerical simulation of embankment dams on liquefiable soil has been
carried out by taking many factors into account. Among these factors, in this project
numerical simulation has been made to see the effect of dam geometry, foundation
material property, and liquefiable soil foundation thickness on the stability of the dam
during dynamic loading. The evaluation also has been made to determine the response of
the embankment dam on liquefiable soil under different earthquake ground shaking
conditions. This includes assessing the safety margins against the risks of failure due to
extreme scenarios, particularly soil liquefaction of the structure‟s foundation. A finding
of this study shows that all those aforementioned factors have a significant impact on the
stability of the liquefiable foundation of the embankment dam under dynamic loading. As
a result an embankment dam having with 1 to 3 slope ratios, 5 meter foundation thickness
with dense sand foundation material can withstand 0.37g peak ground acceleration safely
with respect to slope stability, deformation and liquefaction.
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Keywords
earthquakes, Geo-Slope software, liquefiable foundation, embankment dam