Effect of Dam Height on The Stability of Earth Dam (Case Study: Karolinka Dam)

Abstract

The Karolinka earth-fill dam was constructed between 1977 and 1984 on the Stanovnice river above the town of Karolinka in the region of Vsetínsko in Czech Republic. Because of leakage on the downstream dam face due to technological indiscipline when filling dam layers during the dam construction stage, there were some steps to improve state dam safety. The final rehabilitation is to construct the diaphragm walls from self-hardening cement-bentonite suspension along the length of the dam. In addition to connecting the gallery and abutment (2 × 25 m long) by using jet piles. The article presents numerical modeling of safety factor evaluation associated with the state of the dam body and foundation; before, and after sealing. Also, studying the effect of dam height on its stability by using finite element method is performed by the Plaxis 3D program in the case study of Karolinka dam. It is concluded that measured data shows good agreement with the computed result.