Character of seepage failure and collapse cause of dispersive clay homogeneous earth dam
Jie Liu · Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering · 2004
A homogeneous earth dam made of dispersive clay will certainly be damaged by rain if its crest and slopes are not properly protected.If the methods of identifying dispersive clay gives inconsistent results,the author thinks we should take pinholes test as norm.The main reasons that cause a homogeneous earth dam breach are that:(1)the dam material is dispersive clay;(2)the crest have transverse crack which result in the seepage exiting from downstream slope of the dam;(3)the downstream slope isn't properly protected by filter;(4)the water of reservoir totally comes from rainfall and it is clean.