Authors : Laith Jawad Aziz and Mohammed Shaker Mahmood
Abstract: Experimental investigation is performed to simulate the forces acting on the dam (vertical uplift upward and lateral thrust toward the downstream side). The dams depending mainly upon its own weight to resist these effects, therefore, the prediction of the uplift pressure force is of great significance in the dam stability and safe, especially when the foundation soil contains. Forty two model test are conducted by using steel dam with sheet pile at various positions (dam heel, at mid floor of dam and at dam toe) resting on sandy soil with artificially cavity at a different locations in X and Z directions (lateral cavity location, X) and (cavity depth, D) through the flow region. It was concluded that generally, the values of the pressure head under the floor of the dam with cavity conditions are greater than that for no cavity condition. To reduce the magnitudes of the generated uplift pressure force due to the presence of the cavity, the sheetpile must be installed in the dam center. The effects of the cavity depth on the safe dam depends on the regions of sheetpile placed, (the critical positions of the sheetpile are at the dam toe and at the dam heel when the cavity locations are in deep and shallow, respectively).
Laith Jawad Aziz and Mohammed Shaker Mahmood, 2019. Experimental Simulation of Dam on Soil with Cavity for Measuring Uplift Pressure Force. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 14: 153-158.