Author/Authors :
محبت زاده، آرش نويسنده Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Dezful Branch, Khouzestan, Iran Mohebatzadeh, Arash , غلامي ، علي نويسنده Gholami, A , هدايت ، نجف نويسنده , , روشندل، امير نويسنده Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Dezful Branch, Khouzestan, Iran Roshandel, Amir
Abstract :
Renewable water resources in arid and semi-arid regions are considered as the vital ingredient for sustainable economic development and rural regeneration. The water resources stored behind the reservoir dams because of its potential energy reserve which tends to seep through the body of the structures such as the dams. This hydraulic characteristic has caused the water as active flow infiltrating through the permeable and porous mass of the foundation and the main structure and seeps to downstream. Given such importance, the researchers and experts place an emphasis on the study of seepage and its accurate estimation as an important priority in the feasibility study and design phases of the river engineering projects to ensure efficient operational performance that also guarantees sustainability of the structure in question. The aim of the present study is to have a two-dimensional numerical simulation of the seepage phenomenon using the Seep/w software in Karkheh earth dam under semi-saturated soil type. Results indicated a significant statistical difference between the model data and the real-time observed data in such a way that the model estimated the seepage rate to be about twice those that were observed in the study area. Results further showed that by a 30% decrease in the coefficient of permeability the estimated seepage rate by the modeling will show a decrement of 50%. This might be due to the difference between the coefficients of permeability of the simulated and actual dam’s materials, which is partly for the safety factor consideration and partly linked to inaccuracy of the instruments to measure the real-time seepage.
