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Design of Hydraulic Structures: B.Tech Civil Credit Hours: 03

This document discusses seepage and seepage theories related to hydraulic structures. It describes seepage as the slow escape of liquid or gas through porous material. Seepage can endanger structures by causing piping or uplift pressure. Three main seepage theories are described: Bligh's creep theory, Lane's weighted creep theory, and Khosla theory. Bligh's theory assumes water creeps along the structure contour and head loss is proportional to creep length. Safety against piping or uplift can be ensured by maintaining hydraulic gradients below threshold values based on soil type.

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Suleman Faisal
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170 views13 pages

Design of Hydraulic Structures: B.Tech Civil Credit Hours: 03

This document discusses seepage and seepage theories related to hydraulic structures. It describes seepage as the slow escape of liquid or gas through porous material. Seepage can endanger structures by causing piping or uplift pressure. Three main seepage theories are described: Bligh's creep theory, Lane's weighted creep theory, and Khosla theory. Bligh's theory assumes water creeps along the structure contour and head loss is proportional to creep length. Safety against piping or uplift can be ensured by maintaining hydraulic gradients below threshold values based on soil type.

Uploaded by

Suleman Faisal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DESIGN OF HYDRAULIC

STRUCTURES
B.Tech Civil
Credit Hours : 03

Engr. Mir Masood Shah

Department of Technology 1
Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar
Lecture 6

Department of Technology 2
Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar
SEEPAGE
Seepage is the slow escape of a liquid or gas through porous
material or small holes
Gravity
dam

Seepage is one of the applications of ground water hydraulic. The


aims of studying seepage in civil engineering are:
1. To find the discharge of seepage through and beneath
the structure
2. To find up lift pressure under the structure
3. To find solution for foundation and piping failures

1
SEEPAGE THEORIES
Hydraulic structures may either be founded on an impervious
solid rock foundation or on pervious foundation.
Whenever such a structure is founded on pervious foundation, it
is subjected to seepage of water beneath the structure, in addition
to all other forces.

US: upstream DS: downstream


side side

Tail
water

Uplift
pressure due
to seepage

Schematic Diagram of a 2
dam
SEEPAGE THEORIES
The water seeping below the body of the hydraulic structure,
endanger the stability of the structure and may cause its failure,
either by

(1). Piping(also called undermining); or by


(2). Direct uplift

3
SEEPAGE THEORIES
(1). Failure by Piping or undermining
When seepage water retains sufficient residual force at the
emerging downstream end of the work, it may lift up the soil
particles. This leads to increased porosity of the soil by
progressive removal of soil from beneath the foundation. The
structure may ultimately subside into the hollow so formed,
resulting in the failure of the structure.

Figure Source: civil-engg- 4


world.blogspot.com
SEEPAGE THEORIES
(2). Failure by Direct uplift.
The water seeping below the structure, exerts an uplift pressure
on the floor of structure. If this pressure is not counterbalanced
by the weight of the concrete of masonry floor, the structure will
fail by rupture of a part of the floor.

5
SEEPAGE THEORIES
Generally there are three seepage theories

1. Bligh’s creep theory


2. Lane weighted creep theory
3. Khosla theory

6
SEEPAGE THEORIES
1. Bligh’s creep theory
• According to Bligh’s Theory, the percolating water follows the
outline of the base of the foundation of the hydraulic structure.
In other words, water creeps along the bottom contour of the
structure. The length of the path thus traversed by water is
called the length of the creep, L,.
L=LH+LV
• Further, it is assumed in this theory, that the loss of head is
proportional to the length of the creep.
• If HL is the total head loss between the upstream and the
downstream, and L is the length of creep, then the loss of
head per unit of creep length (i.e. HL/L) is called the hydraulic
gradient.
• Note, Bligh makes no distinction between horizontal and
vertical creep.

7
SEEPAGE THEORIES

B
A

Consider a section a shown in Fig above. Let HL be the difference


of water levels between upstream and downstream ends. Water
will seep along the bottom contour as shown by arrows. It starts
percolating at A and emerges at B.
The total length of creep is given by
L = d1 + d1 + L1 + d2 + d2 + L2 + d3 + d3
= (L1+ L2) + 2(d1 + d2 + d3) = b + 2(d1 + d2 + d3) 8
SEEPAGE THEORIES

Head loss per unit length or hydraulic gradient =


And the head losses will occur at
locations of three vertical cutoffs
The hydraulic gradient line (H.G. Line) can then be drawn as
shown in figure above

9
SEEPAGE THEORIES
(i) Safety against piping or undermining:
According to Bligh, the safety against piping can be ensured by
providing sufficient creep length, given by L = C.HL, where C is
the Bligh’s Coefficient for the soil. Different values of C for
different types of soils are tabulated below:

Note: The hydraulic gradient i.e. HL/L is then equal to 1/C. Hence,
it may be stated that the hydraulic gradient must be kept under a
safe limit in order to ensure safety against piping. i.e.,
HL/L ≤ 1/C

10
SEEPAGE THEORIES
(ii) Safety against uplift pressure:
The ordinates of the H.G line above the bottom of the floor
represent the residual uplift water head at each point. Say for
example, if at any point, the ordinate of H.G line above the bottom
of the floor is 1 m, then 1 m head of water will act as uplift at that
point. If h′ meters is this ordinate, then water pressure equal to h′
meters will act at this point, and has to be counterbalanced by the
weight of the floor of thickness say t.

11

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