ANALYSIS OF FAILURE OF SOME EARTH DAMS AND THEIR REMEDIAL MEASURES

Abstract

The principles, which today govern the design of earth dams, have evolved largely from investigations of the failures of man made dams. The design and the construction methods though advancing rapidly with added experience, are still not perfect and the failures of earth dams continue to occur. There arise new causes of failures, sometimes due to mechanical equipments and other new methods of construction, being adopted both in India and abroad. Thus there are still quite a few gaps in our knowledge as regards the forces coming into action and which bring about unexpected failures some.. times. Each new disaster has its own new lessons to teach. The failure can prove a real asset to the science of earth dams if it is investigated thoroughly and ana-lysed obj ectively.. with this idea in view, the analysis of forces and causes of earth dam failures, and their remedial measures, have been reviewed and only some typical recent failures in India, which are particularly instructive, have been analysed.