Analyzing The Stability of Earthen Embankment Considering the Effect of Seepage

Abstract

The stability of the earthen embankment is of considerable significance because its collapse will lead to the loss of life and property. The Earthen embankment is the oldest type of embankment which controls the flow of water in rivers. The failure in embankments is hydraulic, seepage, and structural failure. The Stability of the embankment slope is essential because villages are situated in the downstream side of the embankment. Seepage is the most critical phenomenon for the stability of embankment. There is an enormous impact of seepage on the stability of slope of the embankment. Steady state and instantaneous drawdown condition of seepage impacts on the stability of downstream and upstream of embankment, respectively. Water head is an essential phenomenon for the stability of embankment. The stability analysis of slope in different cases of seepage is performed with the combination of SEEP/W and SLOPE/W software of GEO-STUDIO 2021.3. In this paper the slope stability is determined by different limit equilibrium method like Morgenstern-Price, Spencer, Ordinary method of slices, Janbu and Bishop method. Instantaneous drawdown condition is the most critical condition for the slope stability of the embankment. The analysis found that both downstream slope and upstream slope of Howard embankment are safe during steady-state and instantaneous drawdown conditions of transient seepage. We found that the factor of safety of slope is greater than 1.5 in all cases which is discussed in the research paper, so the slope is stable. In this paper also a comparison of factor of safety (F.O.S.) is shown in table 2 for slope of the embankment by different method.s