Eff ects of material properties on behavior of embankment dam clay cores in narrow valleys

In this study, stress-strain analyses of embankment dams with clay core innarrow valleys are evaluated by means of numerical modeling, considering the longitudinalsection along an embankment dam centerline. emphasis is placed on eects of crossvalley dierential settlements, and the end of construction core load-settlement behavior,particularly in vicinity of abutments. the eects of core material type (mixed clayeysand material versus pure clay) on stress-strain behavior are examined. as a case study,the masjed soleyman clay core is analyzed considering dierent types of materials, and arange of core material deformation properties. a 70% reduction in depth of tensile zonesnear the core-abutment interface was achieved by inclusion of contact clay material at thecore bottom. comparison of analysis results with instrumentation data suggested a goodagreement between results.