Internal Erosion Experiments on Sandy Gravel Alluvium in an Embankment Dam Foundation Emphasizing Horizontal Seepage and High Surcharge Pressure

Abstract

For an internally unstable soil, fine particles can move in the pore channels between coarse particles along with seepage flow; this process is termed internal erosion. To evaluate the internal stability and internal erosion behavior of sandy gravel alluvium beneath the suspended cutoff wall in an embankment dam foundation, a series of horizontal seepage tests were carried out on the four representative gradations of the alluvium layer using a large-scale high-pressure erosion apparatus. The evolutionary trends of hydraulic conductivity, the erosion ratio of fine particles, and volumetric strain under stepwise increasing hydraulic loading were obtained. The results showed that the specimens of different gradations exhibited distinct properties in permeability, particle loss, and deformation, depending on the gradation continuity and fine particle content, which can be attributed to the difference in the composition of the soil skeleton and the arrangement of coarse and fine particles. For the specimens with continuous gradations or relatively high fine particle content, the surcharge pressure can significantly improve their internal stability. By contrast, in the situations of gap-graded gradations or low fine particle content, no considerable improvement was found because the stress was mainly borne by the coarse skeleton. The practical implications of the experimental results were demonstrated by evaluating the seepage safety of the zone beneath the suspended wall in the dam foundation.