Author(s)

E.G. Kalkani

Abstract

The influence of stress-dependent permeability on the seepage in the foundation of an earth dam is presented, with an application in the case of Stratos dam in Greece. The objectives include the definition of the stress field and the effect on the permeability distribution in the foundation of the earth dam separately for the effective stress, the pore pressure and the total stress. The implication of the findings is that the mean square error in evaluating the total head potential at the position of the piezometers remains small, assuming that the vertical permeability in the foundation is equal to the horizontal times a factor K = (stress in m)^v, where v is approximately -0.5 for the effective or total stress fields and approximately -1 for the pore pressure field. 1

Keywords