Performance of heterogeneous earthfill dams under earthquakes: optimal location of the impervious core

Earthfill dams are man-made geostructures which may be especially damaged by seismic loadings, because the soil skeleton they are made of suffers remarkable modifications in its mechanical properties, as well as changes of pore water pressure and flow of this water inside their pores, when subjected to vibrations. The most extreme situation is the dam failure due to soil liquefaction. Coupled finite element numerical codes are a useful tool to assess the safety of these dams. In this paper the application of a fully coupled numerical model, previously developed and validated by the authors, to a set of theoretical cross sections of earthfill dams with impervious core, is presented. All these dams are same height and have the same volume of impervious material at the core. The influence of the core location inside the dam on its response against seismic loading is numerically explored. The dams are designed as strictly stable under static loads. As a result of this research, a design recommendation on the location of the impervious core is obtained for this type of earth dams, on the basis of the criteria of minor liquefaction risk, minor soil degradation during the earthquake and minor crest settlement.