STABILITY EVALUATION OF UPSTREAM COVER SOIL OF EARTH DAM EMBANKMENTS WITH GEOSYNTHETIC CLAY LINERS

Abstract

In recent years, retrofitting of small earth dams has become an urgent task due to their aging and lack of seismic resistance. In this paper, the stability calculation of the cover soil upstream of the embankment is examined to establish a design method for retrofitting with geosynthetic clay liners, which is on the rise recently. Stability calculations based on the potential slip surface along the sheet surface proposed in a previous study and the circular slip surface slice method were verified in real earth dams in Hyogo Prefecture. As a result, the influence of water level and horizontal seismic intensity on the factor of safety differed depending on the calculation method, and the combination of both methods was found to be important to obtain the minimum factor of safety.