Open AccessExtending the Kenney–Lau method to dam core soils of glacial till
Author(s) -
Hans Rönnqvist,
Peter Viklander
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geotechnical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 10
ISSN - 2052-6156
DOI - 10.1680/gr.14.00007
Subject(s) - glacial period , soil water , erosion , internal erosion , geology , core (optical fiber) , benchmark (surveying) , environmental science , geotechnical engineering , soil science , geomorphology , engineering , geodesy , telecommunications
The Kenney–Lau method, which is used to assess the internal stability of granular soils, is stretched in engineering practice to include soils with fines. This strays beyond the method’s intended range and may introduce potential uncertainty in terms of validity. Herein, results are presented from the assessment of grain size curves from core construction data belonging to a large number of existing dams with core material composed of widely graded glacial till soils. Some have experienced internal erosion events, and others have not, and based on the benchmark of historic performance data of these dams, the validity of the Kenney–Lau method in terms of glacial tills is investigated. Only dams in the same filter coarseness range are studied in order to reduce the influence of the filter. By contrasting dams with documented internal erosion history against the application results of the method, it indicates that the Kenney–Lau method can be extended with caution to include glacial till cores if within the proposed fines content and finer fraction ranges.