Infrastructure Engineering - Theses

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Rapid drawdown in earth dams

Barrett, John Russell ( 1971)

It would appear that the most rational method of obtaining the rapid drawdown pore pressure response is to apply the field stress path to laboratory samples of the embankment material. However this approach has not been very successful and stability analyses indicate that a detailed understanding of rapid drawdown response is necessary for safe and economic design. Therefore controlled drawdown tests were carried out in the laboratory and the results were compared with various methods of prediction. The drawdown behaviour could be predicted by a refined analysis but the results cannot be applied directly to field situations. The drawdown stress changes were studied for prototype structures and the variables that govern the undrained pore pressure response were also studied. On the basis of these investigations the reported field measurements can be understood and a conservative design estimate of the drawdown pore pressure response is given.