Pressurised flow in cracks in embankment dam cores

A major hazard to embankment dams is internal erosion and piping arising from concentrated leaks through cracks in the core due to differential settlement. Previous work (Peirson et al., 2023 ) quantified the hydraulics of flow through near-surface transverse cracks subject to near-horizontal pressu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal of environmental and civil engineering Vol. 29; no. 6; pp. 1076 - 1080
Main Authors Peirson, William L., Fell, Robin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis 26.04.2025
Subjects
dam cracking
Embankment Dams
internal erosion
piping
settlement
thin flows
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ISSN1964-8189
2116-7214
DOI10.1080/19648189.2024.2428253

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Summary:A major hazard to embankment dams is internal erosion and piping arising from concentrated leaks through cracks in the core due to differential settlement. Previous work (Peirson et al., 2023 ) quantified the hydraulics of flow through near-surface transverse cracks subject to near-horizontal pressure gradients. This present short note extends the previous work to address pressurised flow through cracks that might occur deeper within the core. Water speeds, hydraulic shear stresses, flows are computed as a function of the applied hydraulic gradient. These results extend previous work addressing the hydraulics of very narrow cracks.
ISSN:1964-8189
2116-7214
DOI:10.1080/19648189.2024.2428253