Possible Use of High Draining Material in Core of Earth Dam with Admixtures

Abstract

In construction of earthen dams, impervious materials are used in the core and pervious materials are placed in the upstream and downstream portion. Most of the construction sites of earthen dam have abundant availability of pervious materials but lacks in the availability of impervious materials. In earthen dams, impervious materials are responsible for the control of seepage loss of the dam. But due to the shortage of impervious materials, there occurs a need to meet the demand of core materials of the dam. To establish the requirement of low permeable soil, it needs to be transported from lower terrain to the construction site at high transportation charge. To minimise the construction cost of the earthen dam, there is a need to upgrade the locally available materials to the desired requirement. This can be achieved by Gradation method or by addition of foreign materials in a small ratio. In the repeated experimental programme, the permeability of locally available soil was reduced by adding industrial and agricultural wastes like fly ash or rice husk ash. Some further experiments have been performed to reduce further permeability by adding various percentages of bentonite mixed with fly ash and rice husk ash.