Department of Civil Engineer, IIT Kharagpur, and Shri Sudhir K. Jain, Department of Civil Engineer, IIT Kanpur.
Source: 6th International R & D Conference on Sustainable Development of Water and Energy Resources–Needs and Challenges - 13–16 February 2007, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
While it is possible to develop an elaborate numerical (finite element or finite difference) model for designing earth dams and embankments such an approach is often prohibitively expensive particularly for designing minor earth structures such as small earth dams, single zone earth embankments and river dikes, and waste containment dikes and tailings dams in low risk environments. Designs of such structures are often based on pseudo static limit equilibrium slope stability calculations and deformation estimation using the sliding block approach. This article summarizes the bases and essential details of these relatively simple approaches. The applicability and pitfalls that follow from the use of the pseudo static slope stability and sliding block methods have also been discussed.
