Post-earthquake performances of small earth dams with geosynthetic clay liners

Abstract

Recently, in addition to cohesive soils, geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) are used for repair of small earth dams as a water barrier. In previous research, full-scale shaking table tests were carried out for four types of embankments under different installation conditions of GCLs in order to estimate their earthquake resistance. This paper firstly reviewed the previous studies and also have examined the deformation characteristics of embankments with GCLs based on 3D laser scanning. As a result, the deformation of the upstream side of embankments was greater than that of the downstream side in all cases. As for the post-earthquake performances, it is essential to avoid overflow after earthquake, and it has been suggested that GCLs should be set within width of crests as possible to retain the crest height at the downstream side.