Hydraulic Fracturing of Low and High Plasticity Clay in the Thick and Thin Core Sections of Earth Dams

The core of an earth dam plays a crucial role in sealing the dam and mitigating the possibility of hydraulic fracturing. This research aims to investigate the phenomenon of hydraulic fracturing and the effect of the dimensions and cross-sectional shape of the clay core. Hydraulic fracture in the middle of the core and on the upstream side of the core has been investigated for two types of lowplasticity clay (CL) and high-plasticityclay (CH). The end of construction, initial dewatering, and steady-state seepage, as well as the stages of dam construction, have also been considered in the modeling. The results show that CL is the critical soil and CH is the selected soil for the dam's core. Also, the possibility of hydraulic fracture in thicker cores and at the bottom of the core was investigated. The results showed that the criteria of Fukushima and Ghanbari yielded the most optimistic and conservative data, respectively. According to the criteria used in this research, CH soil is safe from hydraulic fracturing, and the possibility of hydraulic fracturing for critical soil (CL) downstream of the dam core was found to be probable