No abstract

It can be a great expense to examine individually the stability of earth and rockfill dams on rapid drawdown in civil engineering practice. The aim of this present work is to clarify the safe type on the rapid drawdown among the most common types of earth and rockfill dams and to introduce cheaply the types in dam design. First, a transient analysis of saturated-unsaturated seepage coupled with stress is carried out in the cross sections of typical earth and rockfill dams the during rapid drawdown, and the safety factors of the upstream slopes are determined by the shear strength reduction method. Then, the typical dams are compared for the stability characteristics so that designers can select the safe type of earth and rockfill dams on rapid drawdown. The obtained results show that the decreasing rate of safety factor in a central core dam is 0.72–0.85 times than one of the homogeneous dams and 0.17–0.40 times than one of the sloping upstream core dams so that it is more stable than other earth and rockfill dams during rapid drawdown.

A safety factor of rock mass surrounding the tunnel can be determined using the strength reduction method (SRM), however, it is the most important to solve the criterion of critical state. For the stability estimation of rock mass surrounding tunnel, there is need to discuss that it is preferable to use the same criteria for the slope, such as non-convergence of finite element calculation, penetration of plastic strain and sudden change of horizontal displacement. A safety factor can be determined by sudden change of equivalent plastic strain in relationship between a reduction coefficient of strength parameter and equivalent plastic strain. This method is based on the elasto-plastic FEM and the SRM by ABAQUS and Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion. Simulation results using this method show how a safety factor varies with geometries, friction angles and cohesions for circle and square tunnels. Simulation results also show a safety factor varying with quality change of rock mass, pore water pressure and tunnel depth.