Measurement of Physical Parameters for Transient Seepage Assessment of Levees

An embankment was instrumented and monitored as part of a multiyear project to assess appropriate pore-water pressure distributions and soil water retention curves for use as initial conditions in transient seepage analyses. The increased use of unsaturated soil mechanics and transient seepage has led to the need for practical methods of assigning accurate properties and initial conditions in these types of analyses. Monitoring results were validated against published pore-water pressure measurements collected from multiple embankment studies. The collected distributions showed nonlinear behavior in near-surface embankment soils due to infiltration and evapotranspiration processes. Seasonal variations in pore-water pressure and the soil moisture deficit were shown to correlate at the monitoring site. The seasonal response of the embankments exhibited a large variation in pressures between summer and winter. Assessment of flood occurrence showed the distribution of pore pressures during flood loading was typically near −10 kPa at a depth of 2 m at the onset of the flood. Laboratory soil water retention testing of undisturbed samples collected from the embankment showed that when compared with field measurements, they overestimated the field response for the considered initial water content and dry density values. Also, comparisons between hydrostatic pore pressures above the phreatic surface showed that at soil moisture deficits greater than 20 mm, the difference between the measured and hydrostatic pore pressures greatly increased. The laboratory and monitoring results were used to provide practical methods of assigning representative pore-water pressure distributions and material properties necessary for performing transient seepage analyses. These results will aid in more accurate transient seepage analyses of flood control embankments.