A sophisticated numerical study comes to verify the engineering practice regarding the use of soil filters in dams' earthquake protection. The specific method has been in use for over half a century, with design standards relying exclusively on experimental studies. The new study now offers the capability to further investigate the effectiveness of soil filter use and explore new earthquake-proofing arrangements.
Soil filters having a coarser grain size distribution than the dam's core structure material, are being used for over two generations, protecting finer materials from erosion mainly in case of earthquake-induced cracks. However, practicing engineers were widely on experience, hence avoiding the use of numerical modeling to determine the material's effectiveness. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) of the US Army Corps, conducted a detailed 3-D computer simulation to investigate the ways that soil filters interact with the erosion process to preserve the dam's structural integrity.
They concluded that the specific method is indeed an efficient earthquake protection measure, provided that current soil filter construction standards are followed. Validation of the numerical study was based on centrifuge experiments performed by EDRC at the Centrifuge Research Centre. In the specific experiments, a 30-foot high dam was modeled on a one-foot scale model, also using glass beads of different sizes to simulate the soil filter and the clay core of the dam.
Such numerical simulations are believed to lead to the formulation of more effective earthquake-resistance soil filter configurations, since their interaction with the dam's concrete and embankment section under seismic loading can be accurately simulated and described.
Source: sourceable.net
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