Engineering Geology 151 (2012) 8999

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Engineering Geology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enggeo

Stability assessment of an earth dam on silt/clay tailings foundation: A case study

A. Tolga zer a,, Leslie G. Bromwell b, 1
a b

Civil Engineering Department, Okan University, Tuzla Campus, 34959 Akrat/Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey AMEC-BCI Engineers & Scientists Inc., 2000 E. Edgewood Drive Ste.215, 33803 Lakeland, FL, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
This case study describes the design, and construction of an earth dam built on recently sedimented tailings consisting of low strength, low plasticity silt/clay, and variably silty sand. The tailings were encountered within the construction limits of Cell 7 at the 4 km2 Loxahatchee (L-8) Reservoir in western Palm Beach County, Florida. Fully coupled steady state and transient seepage models with slope stability analyses were performed for operational and rapid drawdown conditions, respectively, using both limit equilibrium methods (LEM) and nite element stress-based modeling (FESBM) techniques. In addition, stability calculations utilizing fully coupled stress/pore pressure analysis were performed to analyze rapid drawdown stability during drawdown. 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 11 August 2011 Received in revised form 12 September 2012 Accepted 16 September 2012 Available online 4 October 2012 Keywords: Rapid drawdown Transient seepage Slope stability Coupled analysis Sedimented silt/clay tailings

1. Introduction The Loxahatchee Reservoir, also termed L-8 Storage Reservoir (L8SR), consists of 7 interconnected cells with a water storage capacity of approximately 56 10 6 m 3. The site is located in western Palm Beach County, Florida, north of the Art Marshall National Wildlife Refuge (also termed Water Conservation Area 1 or WCA-1), within the original headwaters of the Loxahatchee River (Bromwell and Ying, 2009). The reservoir is an integral part of the overall Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a Federal/State project to improve water quality and the distribution of fresh water in south Florida (Christmann et al., 2009). Its primary purpose is to help sustain desired ows and levels within adjacent canals in order to facilitate restoration of the Loxahatchee River and provide additional water supply to West Palm Beach. The reservoir is owned and operated by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and was previously mined by Palm Beach Aggregates, Inc. (PBA) as a commercial limestone quarry. The reservoir, shown in Fig. 1, was constructed during the period 20032008, consisting of seven interconnected cells that had been mined to approximately elevation 4.5 m North American Vertical Datum, NAVD, (all elevations in this paper are NAVD-1988, unless otherwise noted), then the reservoir was further deepened by dredging to elevation 13 m to provide additional storage capacity up to 56 10 6 m 3 (Bromwell and Ying, 2010). Perimeter earth embankments to
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 216 677 1630/1978; fax: +90 2166771486. E-mail addresses: tolga.ozer@okan.edu.tr (A.T. zer), les.bromwell@amec.com (L.G. Bromwell). 1 Tel.: +1 863 6672345; fax: +1 863 6672662. 0013-7952/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2012.09.011

elevation + 7 m surround the reservoir. The embankments were constructed from overburden excavated during the mining process, and provide protection against overtopping during hurricane events, as well as additional water storage (zer et al., 2009). 2. Site geology Geologic conditions at the L8SR site include a surcial layer of peat and organic sands underlain by sand intermixed with lenses of silty to clayey sands, overlying a relatively thick deposit of well-cemented sand and shell of marine origin (Land et al., 1973). The 20-Mile Bend geological formation, which underlies the entire L8SR, is an area of unique geological character. The shallow cemented sandy shell of the carbonate-rich zone and the underlying shelly sand deposits have relatively low permeabilities, which allow utilization of dry mining techniques for the quarry operation. These characteristics are also uniquely suited for water storage and withdrawal with minimal interaction with the surrounding ground water system. According to current geologic literature, the shallow geologic strata include variably lithied members referred to as the Bermont Formation (Petuch and Roberts, 2007). The upper-most stratum at the site is identied as the Fort Thompson Formation. Overall, the ages of the formations present at the PBA facility range from approximately two million years to less than 10,000 years. 3. Field exploration program This paper concerns the design of the southern perimeter embankment of Cell 7 using both limit equilibrium methods (LEM) and nite element stress-based modeling (FESBM) methods to provide

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A.T. zer, L.G. Bromwell / Engineering Geology 151 (2012) 8999

Cell 7 Cell 6 Cell 3 Cell 4 Cells 1&2 Cell 5

NORTH

below the ground surface to the top of the rock formation. These soils ranged from 2.5 to 7 m in total thickness, depending on the amount of overburden at the boring locations and the elevation of the underlying rock formation. The surcial organic soils were removed to facilitate mining operations, except at sporadic locations where organic soils were covered by overburden. Limestone and/or limestone formations were encountered within the borings underlying the surcial sands. These are the primary mineable units encountered at the site, and varied between 0.5 and 6 m in total thickness. Rock coring was performed to determine the quality of the rock and to obtain representative samples. Recorded values for the Rock Quality Designation (RQD) ranged between 0 and 48 and recovery ratio ranged between 17 and 83%. Blow counts (N-values) recorded within these strata ranged from 24 blows per foot to practical refusal (N-value > 50 blows per 15 cm). Intermittent layers of silty and clayey sands were encountered within the rock. In addition, within the footprint of the southwestern embankment of Cell 7, low plasticity clay, silt, and variably silty sand tailings, which originate from the plant washing and sizing operations, were encountered. Relatively low N-values were recorded within the low plasticity clay and silt tailings, ranging from weight-of-rod to 10 blows per foot. N-values between 1 and 50 blows per foot were recorded within the variably silty sand tailings.

4. In-situ and laboratory testing

Fig. 1. Aerial view of Loxahatchee Reservoir.

adequate slope stability during normal operation as well as rapid drawdown conditions. Cell 7, as shown in Fig. 2, is encompassed by three exterior levees referred to as Cell 7 West, South, and East. Cell 7 encompasses a storage area of nearly 0.5 km 2. It is bordered on the south side by a 230 kV Florida Power & Light (FP&L) transmission line easement, the L-8 canal along the east side, and the process plant along the west side. A conveyance structure in the form of an open channel was dredged to connect Cell 7 to Cell 6 through FP&L's transmission line easement area. Cell 7 originally served as a process water/tailings disposal pond for limestone quarry operations, which preceded reservoir construction at the site. A eld exploration program was performed to dene the generalized site-specic soil and rock stratigraphy in order to evaluate the existing foundation conditions for design of the reservoir embankments. A combination of mechanical auger and standard penetration test (SPT) borings was completed to depths ranging between 3.5 and 20 m below the existing grade using tracked and pneumatic drill rigs. In the vicinity of the southern embankment of Cell 7, seven soil strata generally characterize the subsurface geotechnical prole, as shown in Fig. 3. Typically, the surcial soils consist of a combination of interbedded layers of variably silty and clayey sands extending

Both in-situ and laboratory tests were performed to determine hydraulic conductivity and strength properties of the materials to use in LEM and FESBM models. Laboratory strength tests were conducted on selected samples of embankment ll and silt/clay tailings. Triaxial shear tests (TX) were performed on representative grab samples of overburden used to construct the perimeter embankment (BCI, 2007; zer et al., 2009). The soil samples were compacted in the laboratory to 95% of Modied Proctor maximum density, which was the minimum compaction criteria for the as-built embankments. The results of the TX testing are presented in Table 1. In addition, three TX tests, one direct shear (DS) test, and one direct simple shear (DSS) test were performed on selected undisturbed silt/clay tailing samples extracted from the southwestern berm of Cell 7. The results of these tests are presented in Tables 2 and 3. Also, four incremental loading (IL) consolidation tests were performed on undisturbed silt/clay tailings extracted from the southwestern berm of Cell 7 to provide soil properties for settlement analyses. The results of these tests are presented in Table 4. Based on the soil types encountered, the southwestern Cell 7 typical cross section was divided into layers as follows: embankment ll, sandy ll material, very loose sand, silt/clay tailings, silty sands, and underlying sands with variable quantities of shell and shell fragments (Figure 3). In-situ and laboratory permeability tests were performed

L-8 CANAL
CELL 7 WEST CELL 7 SOUTH

CELL 6

PROCESS WATER/TAILINGS DISPOSAL POND (CELL 7)

CELL 7 EAST

CONVEYANCE STRUCTURE

NORTH

PROCESS PLANT

Fig. 2. Aerial view of Cell 7.

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Crest El. 7 m Crest Width: Min. 4 m, Max 8 m. Normal Operating Pool Level El. 4.5 4H:1V Bench El. -4.5 m 15 m Foundation Sand with Shell I
1 2 3 4 5 6

91

Elevation (meters, NAVD)

9 0 -9 -18 -27

1 Embankment Fill 4 Silt/Clay Tailings 2 Sandy Fill Material 5 Silty Sand 3 Very Loose Sand 6 Sand with Shell 10H:1V

Foundation Sand with Shell II

30

60

90

120

150

180

Distance (meters)
Fig. 3. Original design cross-section of Cell 7 Southwestern Embankment.

for seepage modeling. Laboratory permeability tests were conducted on representative soils used to construct the southern perimeter embankment of Cell 7. The soil samples were compacted in the laboratory to 95% of Modied Proctor maximum density. In addition, in-situ pump well tests were conducted to estimate the permeabilities of the subsurface soils (sandy ll material, very loose sand, silty sand, sand with shell, and foundation sands with shell) during the eld investigations. The horizontal permeability and ratio of vertical to horizontal permeabilities were calculated based on data obtained from in-situ and laboratory tests. The soil layer permeability values are shown in Table 5. These values were used in the steady state and transient seepage analyses. 5. Seepage and stability analyses methods used According to Lambe and Silva (2003), the components involved in determining an accurate factor of safety for earth structures are situation (events), geometry (composition), stress and stress path, pore pressure, strength, level of stability and probability of failure. With the introduction of advanced software products along with increased computing power, powerful techniques such as nite element computed stresses have gained popularity in geotechnical engineering design. In this design study for the southwestern embankment of Cell 7, coupled steady-state and transient seepage and deformation analyses using both LEM and FESBM methods were performed in order to design the earth dam on silt/clay tailings, taking into account the components listed by Lambe and Silva (2003). 5.1. Seepage analyses Steady-state seepage analyses and transient seepage analyses were made in order to predict the location of the phreatic surface and pore water pressures for steady state and drawdown conditions, respectively. The typical cross-section of the Cell 7 southwestern embankment was analyzed, using the nite element program SEEP/W (Geo-Slope International Ltd., 2008a) to determine the ow through the embankment based on the embankment geometry, boundary water pressures, soil prole, and vertical and horizontal soil permeabilities (hydraulic conductivities).
Table 1 Multi-stage triaxial (TX) test results. Grab sample ID Effective stress envelope Cohesion c' (kPa) White sand Light gray sand 0 0 Friction angle ' (degrees) 36 38

Partially and fully saturated conditions can be modeled using SEEP/W. Volumetric water content functions for the drainage of the upstream slope during drawdown were determined for the unsaturated zone above the phreatic surface. In order to dene volumetric water content functions, SEEP/W offers four methods: one based on grain size (Aubertin et al., 2003), one based on a sample set of functions for different types of soils built into the software (Geo-Slope International Ltd., 2008a), and two closed form equations based on curve t parameters (Van Genuchten, 1980 and Fredlund and Xing, 1994). Empirical relations based on the grain size distribution for sandy soils presented by Yang et al. (2004) were used in this study to estimate Fredlund and Xing (1994) curve tting parameters to dene the water characteristics curve for sandy soils within the prole. The Fredlund and Xing (1994) curve tting parameters for sandy soils are summarized in Table 6, and water retention curves are shown in Fig. 4. The retention curve parameters for foundation sand layers are irrelevant for the drawdown models since these layers remain always saturated. Since the permeability of the silt/clay tailings are very low (Table 5) unsaturated phenomena play a signicant role in their behavior (Zandarin et al., 2009). The Aubertin et al. (2003) method was used to determine the water characteristic curve for silt/clay tailings, since it can be applied for a variety of materials, including tailings (Geo-Slope International Ltd., 2008a). The resulting curve is also shown in Fig. 4. 5.2. Stability analysis Critical loading conditions that may occur over the operational life of the structure were analyzed in order to determine the minimum calculated factor of safety (FOS). These loading conditions and the corresponding analyses are commonly designated as the steadystate seepage and rapid drawdown cases. Several different analyses are available to determine the FOS of the embankments, including LEM (method of slices), boundary element methods (Jiang, 1990), and nite element computed stresses (Matsui and San, 1992; Dawson et al., 1999; Grifts and Lane, 1999; Belirgen, 2007; Krahn, 2007; Alkasawneh et al., 2008, and Huang and Jia, 2009). In this study both LEM and FESBM were used for the design of the
Table 2 Multi-stage triaxial (TX) and DS test results for southwestern embankment of Cell 7. Soil Effective stress envelope Cohesion c ' (kPa) Silt/clay tailings (TX test#1) Variably silty sand tailings (TX) Silt/clay tailings (TX test#2) Silt/clay tailings (DS) 15 17 9 6 Friction angle ' (degrees) 40.3 39.3 36.5 32.0

92 Table 3 DSS test results for southwestern embankment of Cell 7. Soil Silt/clay tailings Parameter

A.T. zer, L.G. Bromwell / Engineering Geology 151 (2012) 8999 Table 6 Fredlund and Xing (1994) tting parameters for sandy soils. Test 1 190 9.9 46 0.24 Test 2 380 16.6 97 0.25 Soil Embankment ll (compacted sand) Sandy ll material Very loose sand layer Silty sand Sand with shell a (kPa) 1.74 1.77 1.65 2.59 1.67 n 4.47 5.04 4.71 4.39 5.37 m 0.62 0.67 0.71 0.59 0.66

Vertical consolidation stress (kPa) Shear strain at the peak shear stress (%) Corrected peak shear stress (kPa)  S
u

0vc

southwestern embankment of Cell 7 for both steady state and drawdown conditions. LEM is based on the method of slices, and the FOS is dened as the ratio between available and mobilized shear strength along the critical failure plane. LEM, which is based only on the principles of statics, has long been used in geotechnical practice for its simplicity compared to other methods. However, Krahn (2003) indicated that since the LEM does not deal with strain and displacements it does not satisfy displacement compatibility. Krahn (2003) recommended a stressstrain based approach using nite element computed stresses (FESBM) inside a limit equilibrium framework. In this method, nite element computed stresses are rst calculated then they are imported into conventional limit equilibrium analysis. On the other hand, Duncan (1996) indicated that accurate LEM methods of slices give the same values of FOS as obtained from friction circle analyses, log spiral analyses, and nite element analyses. Duncan (1996) also reported that the maximum difference between FOS values calculated by methods that satisfy limiting equilibrium conditions is about 12%, and concluded that an accuracy of about 6% for calculated FOS values is close enough for practical purposes. Performing stability analyses using FESBM based on nite element computed stresses inside a limit equilibrium frame work allows consideration of soil-structure interaction effects (Krahn, 2003). In addition, by calculating stresses using nite element techniques, there is no need to make assumptions about the interslice forces (Krahn, 2003). Using nite element modeling it is possible to model many complex conditions, including non-linear stressstrain behavior, nonhomogeneous conditions, and changes in the geometry; however, both the efforts involved in developing the appropriate engineering

properties and the cost of nite-element analyses are high (Duncan, 1996). In this design study, slope stability analyses were performed for the southwestern embankment of Cell 7 using the computer program SLOPE/W (Geo-Slope International Ltd., 2008b). SLOPE/W implements various LEM (including General Limiting Equilibrium Method, Ordinary or Fellenius Method, Bishop's simplied Method, Janbu's simplied Method, Spencer Method, MorgensenPrice Method, Corps of Engineers Method, LoweKaraath Method, Sarma Method, and Janbu's generalized Method). For LEM practice, Krahn (2003) recommended using Morgenstern and Price (1967) or Spencer (1967) methods since these methods satisfy both force and moment equilibrium. Also, the Spencer (1967) method was recommended by Wright (1969) after examining eight different LEM. In this study, all the reported FOS values using LEM are calculated using the Spencer method. LEM steady-state slope stability was investigated using Effective Stress Analyses (ESA). ESA uses predicted pore pressures and effective stress strength parameters, ' and c '. In order to perform FESBM, the stress-deformation computer program SIGMA/W (Geo-Slope International Ltd., 2008c) was utilized in conjunction with SLOPE/W. In order to calculate FOS of ne-grained soils during rapid drawdown, consideration of stress induced pore pressures and their dissipation, as well as seepage induced pore pressures are recommended (Belirgen, 2007). Fully coupled nite element computed stress/pore-pressure analysis using SIGMA/W along with SEEP/W and SLOPE/W provided FOS values during rapid drawdown by taking stress induced pore-pressures into account. In addition, seepage induced rapid drawdown models were also run.

Table 4 IL consolidation test results. Soil Void ratio eo tailings tailings tailings tailings 0.785 0.532 0.492 1.050 Compression index Cc 0.159 0.116 0.081 0.238 Compression index (eld adjusted) Cc 0.172 0.124 0.089 0.270 Recompression index Cr 0.009 0.0053 0.0028 0.0244

Silt/clay Silt/clay Silt/clay Silt/clay

Table 5 Soil permeability values used in seepage analyses. Soil Elevation (meters) Layer no Permeability (m/s) Horizontal (kh) Embankment ll (compacted sand)a Sandy ll materialb Very loose sand layerb Silt/clay tailingsc Silty sandb Sand with shellb Foundation sand with shell 1b Foundation sand with shell 2b
a b c

Vertical (kv) 4.0 10 5 1.5 10 5 1.5 10 5 5.8 10 9 6.7 10 6 9.1 10 6 8.8 10 6 4.8 10 6

Crest (El +7 m) to El +3 m El. +3 m to +1.5 m El. +1.5 m to 0.5 m El. 0.5 m to 1.5 m El. 1.5 m to 3 m El. 3 m to 4.5 m El. 4.5 m to 15 m El. 15 m to 26 m

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

7.0 10 5 3.0 10 5 3.0 10 5 1.2 10 8 2.4 10 5 1.4 10 5 1.8 10 5 1.1 10 5

Permeability values were from laboratory triaxial test results. Permeability values were based on in-situ pump well test results. Permeability values were back calculated from IL consolidation test data.

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93

0.70

Volumetric Water Content

0.60 0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10 0.00 0.1

Embankment Fill Sandy Fill Very Loose Sand Silt/Clay Tailings Silty Sand Sand with Shell

Table 8 Modied cam-clay parameters for silt/clay tailings. Soil Silt/clay tailings eo 1.050 0.270 0.0244

10

100

1000

Suction (kPa)
Fig. 4. Soil-water characteristics curves.

In order to perform FESBM steady-state slope stability analyses, the stressstrain relationships of the materials in the model need to be dened. SIGMA/W includes six different soil constitutive models including the linear-elastic model, anisotropic elastic model, nonlinear elastic hyperbolic model, elasticplastic model, and modied CamClay model (Geo-Slope International Ltd., 2008c). The linear-elastic model is the simplest soil constitutive model, and only requires Elastic Modulus (E) and Poisson's ratio (). Duncan (1996) pointed out that whenever the simplest representation of soil behavior would result in acceptable accuracy, there is no need to use a very complex constitutive model to analyze the problem. In addition, the linear-elastic model always ensures a solution since there are no convergence difculties as with non-linear constitutive models (Krahn, 2003). The linear-elastic model was used for all the sandy materials in the cross-section, since the strains for the sandy materials are expected to be very small. In addition, it was considered that a reasonable stress distribution can be obtained using simple linear-elastic model parameters for sandy materials since there are no zones of hard materials or a soft core in the southwestern embankment of Cell 7. In order to perform steady-state FESBM slope stability calculations for tailings consisting of low strength, low plasticity silt/clay, and variably silty sand, two other constitutive models, namely the non-linear elastic hyperbolic and modied CamClay models, were used in addition to the linear-elastic model, and the results were compared. SIGMA/W uses the formulation developed by Duncan and Chang (1970) for the non-linear hyperbolic model. The advantage of this model is that the required model parameters can be obtained directly from triaxial strength tests, which are commonly performed to determine engineering properties.

The linear-elastic model uses the general Hooke's Law, and thus relates strain increments to stress increments, and it affords a systematic method for relating modulus values to stresses (Duncan, 1996). The main drawbacks of this model are that it cannot consistently distinguish between loading and unloading phases (Schanz et al., 1999), and also doesn't model plastic deformations in a fully logical way (Duncan, 1996). After considering the low compression ratio, (0.06 to 0.13), relatively low void ratio (0.5 to 1.0), and also fairly low and narrow range for the plasticity index (5 to 18), the Duncan and Chang hyperbolic model (Duncan and Chang, 1970) was selected as one of the constitutive models for the FESBM stability calculations of silt/clay tailings. The third constitutive model selected for silt/clay tailings was the modied CamClay model, since relatively low SPT blow count values were recorded within these tailings, ranging between weight-of-rod and 10 blows. The modied CamClay model's formulation in SIGMA/W is based on Britto and Gunn (1987). It is an effective stress based model and undrained analysis cannot be performed using this model, which is considered a drawback of the model. When performing rapid drawdown stability analyses based on FESBM, the rst step was establishing the long-term seepage conditions using SEEP/W. To establish stress/pore pressure analysis, in-situ stress conditions have to be established using SIGMA/W. This phase of the model uses pore pressure conditions from parent long-term seepage analyses, and the reservoir pressure was applied as a uid-pressure type of boundary condition along the upstream face of the reservoir. After establishing long-term seepage and in-situ stress conditions, the SIGMA/W transient model was completed by simulating the removal of the pool water by applying two boundary conditions on the upstream face of the reservoir. They are the stressstrain uid pressure boundary function and the hydraulic pressure boundary function. Then, nite element computed stresses during drawdown stage are brought into limit equilibrium framework (SLOPE/W) to complete the analyses. 6. Seepage and stability analyses results 6.1. Steady state seepage and long-term stability analysis results Earth dams reach equilibrium after prolonged water storage under normal operational pool levels. It can take many years to establish steady state seepage through an earth dam. Steady state stability analysis does not take into account the time required to reach equilibrium. Steady state seepage analyses (long-term) were made using the nite element program SEEP/W in order to predict the equilibrium location of the phreatic surface within the embankment. Reservoir levels of 4.5 m (normal operating pool), 5 m (maximum operating
Table 9 Upstream static slope stability analysis with steady state seepage. Method Calculated FOS Normal operating pool LEM FESBMa FESBMb FESBMc
a b c

Table 7 Material properties for both LEM and FEM analysis. Material Unit weight, (kN/m3) 18 17 15 14 17 18 20 20 Internal friction angle, ' (degrees) 36 28 25 36 29 33 35 38 Cohesion, c ' (kPa) 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 Poisson ratio, 0.35 0.30 0.30 0.40 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 Elastic modulus, E (MPa) 56 20 15 15 20 50 80 100

Embankment (compacted ll)a Sandy ll materialb Very loose sandb Silt/clay tailingsa Silty sandb Sand with shellb Foundation sand with shell 1b Foundation sand with shell 2b
a b

Maximum operating pool 3.05 2.94 2.93 3.04

Maximum surcharge pool 3.26 3.16 3.15 3.28

2.91 2.81 2.80 2.89

Based on laboratory triaxial test results. Based on SPT correlations.

With linear-elastic model for silt/clay tailings. With non-linear hyperbolic model for silt/clay tailings. With modied cam-clay model for silt/clay tailings.

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A.T. zer, L.G. Bromwell / Engineering Geology 151 (2012) 8999

1 Embankment Fill 4 Silt/Clay Tailings 2 Sandy Fill Material 5 Silty Sand 3 Very Loose Sand 6 Sand with Shell

Foundation Sand with Shell I

Foundation Sand with Shell II

Fig. 5. Steady-state critical failure plane determined by LEM for operational pool (FOS = 2.9).

1 Embankment Fill 4 Silt/Clay Tailings 2 Sandy Fill Material 5 Silty Sand 3 Very Loose Sand 6 Sand with Shell

Foundation Sand with Shell I

Foundation Sand with Shell II

Fig. 6. Phreatic line after 10 days of drawdown from normal operating pool.

pool), and 5.5 m (maximum surcharge pool) were used in the analyses. The input parameters for the ESA (steady state) analyses are summarized in Table 7. Shear strength values and elastic modulus for the embankment ll and silt/clay tailing layers were calculated based on triaxial tests (Tables 1 and 2). For the rest of the materials, conservative estimates of the material properties were made based on SPT data. The input parameters for the modied CamClay model derived from IL consolidation test results were used for silt/clay tailings, as summarized in Table 8. SIGMA/W allows the user to dene the modulus of elasticity versus stress curves for non-linear hyperbolic models, thus the modulus versus stress curve from TX test results shown in Table 2 are used for non-linear models of silt/clay tailings. The upstream slope stability with steady state seepage using the ow properties from Table 5 is shown in Table 9 for reservoir levels of 4.5 m (normal operating pool), 5 m (maximum operating pool), and 5.5 m (maximum surcharge pool). Fig. 5 shows the critical failure plane for the case of normal operating pool calculated using LEM. Relatively close agreement was found between the critical failure planes obtained from both LEM and the three FESBM methods for the steady-state analysis. Based on the results shown on Table 9, the upstream embankment slope for all reservoir levels exceeded the minimum required FOS of 1.5 for static slope stability under steady-state seepage conditions established by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE, 2003). Regardless of the selected soil behavior (linear-elastic,

non-linear hyperbolic, and modied CamClay) for the FESBM modeling of silt/clay tailings material, reasonably close agreement was obtained with the FOS value using Spencer's LEM method. The maximum difference between calculated FOS methods using LEM and FESBM are within approximately + 4 and 1%, which is much less than the variability in soil engineering properties. Thus, LEM analysis using a method that satises both force and moment equilibrium (i.e., Spencer's Method) performed equally as well as FESBM based models for this study. Among the FESBM models, the linear-elastic model can be used for low plasticity silt/clay tailings since it provided reasonable stress conditions and did not require great effort to obtain the input parameters relative to other more complex constitutive models.

6.2. Rapid drawdown stability analysis results Rapid drawdown is dened as the sudden lowering of the reservoir water level, and the rate of acceptable drawdown needs to be dened for embankment dams. If the water within the embankment cannot drain fast enough as the reservoir is lowered, internal pore pressure will build within the dam and may cause the upstream slope to fail. There are numerous reported drawdown failures in the literature including Pilarcitos Dam, Walter Bouldin Dam, numerous riverbank slopes along Rio Montario (Duncan et al., 1990), and bank slopes of Licking River (Londono, 2004).

Factor of Safety (Based on FESBM)

1.5

4.5 4
Drawdown from 4.5 m Drawdown from 5.0 m Drawdown from 5.5 m

Total Head (meters)

1.4 1.3 1.2 1.1 1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Transient Seepage Model Stress/Pore Pressure Coupled Model Reservoir Pool

Elapsed Time (Days)

Fig. 7. Results of rapid drawdown analysis.

Elapsed Time (Days)

Fig. 8. Pore water pressure response.

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In order to perform drawdown slope stability analyses, transient seepage analyses were rst performed utilizing SEEP/W. In order to perform transient seepage analyses for the rapid drawdown condition, steady state seepage analyses (long-term) were rst performed utilizing SEEP/W in order to predict the equilibrium location of the phreatic surface within the embankment. Once the steady-state analysis was completed, transient seepage modeling was performed by applying a drawdown rate of 0.3 m/day along the upstream face of the embankment as a moving head boundary condition. Based on the results of the transient seepage analyses, ow nets were generated for the southwestern embankment of Cell 7. Then the ow nets were imported into conventional limit equilibrium analysis (SLOPE/W) to perform stability analyses according to the USACE (2003) method. Fig. 6 shows the phreatic line after 10 days of drawdown from normal operating pool level. A dot within the middle of the silt/clay tailings layer in Fig. 6 is a reference point, which will be discussed further regarding the pore-pressure response. zer et al. (2009) reported the results of coupled transient seepage models with rapid drawdown slope stability analyses using LEM in three stages in accordance with the procedures described in USACE (2003). The method was developed by Lowe and Karaath (1960), and later modied by Wright and Duncan (1987), and Duncan et al. (1990). zer et al. (2009) concluded that using the triaxial shear test results and the USACE (2003) procedure, the minimum required factors of safety were satised (varied between 1.4 and 1.6). However, analyses using undrained strength values from DSS testing (Table 3) gave a calculated minimum factor of safety values on the order of 1.0 (varied between 1.0 and 1.03), which is unacceptably low for rapid drawdown.

In this study, coupled stress/pore pressure modeling results from rapid drawdown analyses were used in FESBM modeling in order to include the effect of stress conditions and soil-structure interaction during the drawdown. The rapid drawdown transient seepage analyses were performed for reservoir levels of 4.5 m (normal operating pool), 5 m (maximum operating pool), and 5.5 m (maximum surcharge pool). For the L8SR, the design drawdown rate is 0.3 m/day. Because linear-elastic analysis seemed adequate to obtain reasonable stress conditions for silt/clay tailings during steady state stability analyses, the linear-elastic soil properties were also used for the FESBM analyses of rapid drawdown. As recommended by zer et al. (2009) undrained DSS test results (Table 3) were used for slope stability calculations for the silt/clay tailings. As pointed out by Ladd and DeGroot (2003), DSS tests better represent typical stress conditions imposed on a soft foundation layer by an overlying earth embankment. During DSS testing, the shear stresses are applied horizontally, which is most likely the case in the eld, rather than the approximately 45 shear plane that occurs in triaxial tests. In addition, the DSS test represents mobilized shear strength that would likely be the failure mechanism under undrained shear conditions for embankments on soft clays. In addition, DSS test results will generally show a lower strength value for soft cohesive soils than will triaxial compression tests (Ladd and DeGroot, 2003). The results of transient stability models based on FESBM are shown in Fig. 7. Analyses using the FESBM modeling indicated minimum factor of safety values on the order of 1.0 (varied between 1.03 and 1.06) which is in close agreement with the LEM values using Spencer's method (factor of safety values varied between 1.0 and 1.03). For the rapid drawdown case, the maximum difference between calculated FOS methods using LEM and FESBM are within

(a)
4.5 4

Reservoir Pool Elevation during Drawdown (m)

4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5

Reservoir Pool FOS

3.5 3 2.5

2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 2

This line corresponds to the minimum required FOS = 1.3 against rapid drawdown for pumped storage dams (USACE, 2003) 1.5

Elapsed Time (Days)

(b)
1 Embankment Fill 4 Silt/Clay Tailings 2 Sandy Fill Material 5 Silty Sand 3 Very Loose Sand 6 Sand with Shell

9 m. wide over excavation and replacement area

1

6 m. wide toe buttress

Foundation Sand with Shell I

Factor of Safety
4 5 6

Foundation Sand with Shell II

Fig. 9. (a) Results of rapid drawdown analysis when toe buttress and over-excavation are implemented. (b) Design cross-section and the critical failure plane.

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approximately 3%, which is, much less than the variability in soil engineering properties. This indicates that the normal stress distribution along the slip surfaces are in good agreement in limit equilibrium and nite element based models. The generated excess pore water pressure behavior during rapid drawdown using transient seepage analysis and the fully coupled stress/pore pressure model are compared within the silt/clay layer at the location shown in Fig. 6. As shown in Fig. 8 both the transient seepage and stress/pore pressure models produced nearly identical results. Consequently, the coupled stress/pore pressure model using linear-elastic material properties resulted in reasonable values of stress distribution during rapid drawdown. Thus, LEM analysis using a method that satises both force and moment equilibrium

(i.e., Spencer's Method) performed equally as well as FESBM based models for this study. Regardless of the model (FEM or FESBM) selected to analyze the rapid drawdown stability of the reservoir, the factor of safety values against rapid drawdown were on the order of 1.0, which is unacceptably low for the rapid drawdown condition. Therefore, the design of the Cell 7 southwestern embankment called for the over-excavation of very loose or soft deposits of mine tailings encountered beneath the embankment footprint within 6 to 9 m of the inside toe. In addition, a 6-meter wide toe buttress was added from the mine bottom at 4.5 m up to an elevation of 0.5 m to provide additional resistance against slope instability in the event of rapid drawdown of the reservoir and also to create a bench for a possible future roller compacted concrete

(a)
Natural Ground at elevation +6 m

Shot Rock Placement at elevation -4.5 m Embankment Construction

(b)

Tailings Removal Tailings Removal

(c)

Fig. 10. (a) Embankment ll placement; (b) tailings removal; and (c) Cell 7 southern embankment in operation.

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97

(a)
Reservoir Pool Elevation during Drawdown (m)
4.5 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 2.5 2 3.5

Reservoir Pool FOS

This line corresponds to the minimum required FOS = 1.3 against 1.5 rapid drawdown for pumped storage dams (USACE, 2003)

Elapsed Time (Days)

1 Embankment Fill 4 Silt/Clay Tailings 2 Sandy Fill Material 5 Silty Sand 3 Very Loose Sand 6 Sand with Shell

(b)

9 m. wide over excavation and replacement area 6 m. wide toe buttress

Foundation Sand with Shell I

6 4

Foundation Sand with Shell II

Fig. 11. (a) Results of rapid drawdown analysis for the as-built worst case scenario. (b) The critical failure plane.

slope protection system. These stabilization measures resulted in a dramatic increase in the calculated factor of safety against rapid drawdown from approximately 1.0 to 2.8 (Figure 9). 7. Construction details and post-construction performance The southwestern embankment design called for the overexcavation of very loose or soft deposits of mine tailings encountered beneath the embankment footprint within 6 to 9 m of the inside toe. The extent of over-excavation depended on the location of tailings along the alignment. Unsuitable tailings were replaced with suitable embankment ll material to increase the factor of safety of the slope and to reduce potential post-construction settlement. In addition, a toe buttress consisting of well-graded limestone rock was added during construction to provide additional resistance against slope instability in the event of rapid drawdown of the reservoir. Vertical construction of the southern Cell 7 embankment extended from the pit bottom at Elevation 4.5 m to the crest at Elevation + 7 m (Figure 10a). Prior to the start of construction, the water level in Cell 7 was lowered to Elevation 5 m in order to excavate tailings material and prepare the foundation for the embankment. The southern alignment of Cell 7 was constructed from the pit bottom (Elevation 4.5 m) because of constraints imposed as a consequence of original mining operations and the location of the transmission line easement relative to the proposed construction. Cell 7, as shown in Fig. 2, is bordered on the south side by a 230 kV FP&L transmission easement, and a conveyance structure in the form of an open channel was dredged to connect Cell 6 to Cell 7 through the transmission line easement area. Seepage into the south side of Cell 7 from the adjacent Cell 6, which was at a higher water level, required installation of a steel sheetpile wall across the conveyance

channel, which had been backlled in order to allow lowering of the water in Cell 7. The sheetpile wall reduced the seepage and allowed excavation of the tailings material. After the pit bottom was exposed and dewatered by rim ditching, placement of embankment ll began. In some areas along the embankment, wet conditions were encountered in excavations after mine tailings had been removed. These excavations were backlled with well-graded compacted limestone rock to provide a stable working platform for the placement and compaction of embankment ll (Figure 10a). All unsuitable mine tailings were removed to the extent practical and replaced with clean compacted ll after the pit bottom was exposed in order to increase the factor of safety of the slope and to reduce potential post-construction settlement (Figure 10b). Embankment ll was then placed by large earth-moving equipment and spread by bulldozers in 30-cm thick lifts before compaction. Water was added as necessary to achieve a moisture content near optimum, and compaction was performed by large vibratory roller compactors. The compacted surface of each lift was scaried before the overlying layer was placed. The reservoir was further deepened by dredging to elevation 13 m to provide additional storage capacity. After the completion of embankment construction, sod was placed over the embankment (Figure 10c). Six SPT conrmation borings were performed on August 16 and 17, 2007 along the Cell 7 South embankment crest as a part of the post-construction conrmation process. The borings generally encountered layers of compacted sand and variably silty sand. However, pockets of tailings were encountered between Elevations +2.3 and +4 m, 1 and +1.5 m, and 2 to 3 m during the performance of one of these borings. Recorded SPT blow counts in the tailings ranged from 2 to 13 blows per foot, indicating a very soft to stiff consistency for the soil unit. This worst case scenario was modeled at the permitted drawdown rate

Factor of Safety
6

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4
Reservoir elevation Factor of Safety

2.9 2.85 2.8 2.75

Reservoir Pool Elevation (m, NAVD)

2.7 2.65

2.6 2.55

2.5 2.45

-1

Date

2.4
22/05/2010 19/09/2010 17/01/2011 24/09/2009 22/01/2010 17/05/2011 14/09/2011

07/06/2007

05/10/2007

02/02/2008

01/06/2008

29/09/2008

27/01/2009

Fig. 12. Post-construction performance regarding factor of safety calculations.

27/05/2009

and the calculated factor of safety against rapid drawdown was slightly reduced from 2.8 (Figure 9) to 2.5 (Figure 11) which still satised the minimum required FOS against rapid drawdown (1.3). Cell 7 embankment construction was completed on August 2007. As shown in Fig. 12, the reservoir has been through 4 drawdown cycles since completion. The average drawdown rate was approximately 12 cm/day which was less than the design drawdown rate of 30 cm/day. Maximum daily drawdown during the last 4 years was 25 cm/day which is relatively close to the design drawdown rate. Frequent visual inspection of the physical condition of the southern embankment of Cell 7 has been performed since the initial lling and during subsequent drawdowns. No indications of structural instability have occurred indicating that the toe buttress and removal of the silt/clay tailings materials 6 to 9 m inside the toe has provided structural integrity. In addition to the visual observations, post construction behavior of the embankment is also modeled under the historical pool levels (Figure 12). Post construction analyses and observations indicate that the measures taken to increase the stability against rapid drawdown loading were successful.

Excess pore pressure response during rapid drawdown was compared between transient seepage and stress/pore pressure models, and it was found that both approaches produced nearly identical results. Consequently, the coupled stress/pore pressure model using linear-elastic material properties resulted in reasonable values of stress distribution during rapid drawdown. It was found that rapid drawdown governs the design, and regardless of the type of stability analysis (either LEM or FESBM), undrained DSS strength test results for the low plasticity tailings should be considered for the design against rapid drawdown failure. It would be prudent for a design engineer to perform the analyses using the results from both triaxial and DSS tests to dene the shear strength behavior of undrained soils, and use the lower, more critical, factor of safety value for the design. References
Alkasawneh, W., Malkavwi, A.I.H., Nusairat, J.H., Albataineh, N.A., 2008. Comparative study of various commercially available programs in slope stability analysis. Computers and Geotechnics 35, 428435. Aubertin, M., Mbonimpa, M., Bussiere, B., Chapuis, R.P., 2003. A model to predict the water retention curve from basic geotechnical properties. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 40, 11041122. BCI Engineers and Scientists, 2007. Design Basis Memorandum: L8 Storage Reservoir Palm Beach County, FL. Prepared for Palm Beach Aggregates, Inc. Belirgen, M.M., 2007. Investigation of stability of slopes under drawdown conditions. Computers and Geotechnics 34, 8191. Britto, A.M., Gunn, M.J., 1987. Critical state soil mechanics via nite elements. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York. Bromwell, L.G., Ying, K., 2009. Predicted vs. measured slope erosion at L-8 reservoir during hurricane Jeanne. Association of State Dam Safety Ofcials (ASDSO) Dam Safety'09, Hollywood, FL. Bromwell, L.G., Ying, K., 2010. Correlation of predicted and measured slope erosion. ISCE-5, 5th International Conference on Scour and Erosion, San Francisco, CA. Christmann, C.W., Bromwell, L.G., Schwartz, M., 2009. Soil-bentonite slurry wall for seepage control at L-8 reservoir. Association of State Dam Safety Ofcials (ASDSO) Dam Safety'09, Hollywood, FL. Dawson, E.M., Roth, W.H., Drescher, A., 1999. Slope stability analysis by strength reduction. Geotechnique 49 (6), 835840. Duncan, J.M., 1996. State of art: limit equilibrium and nite element analysis of slopes. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE 122 (7), 577596. Duncan, J.M., Chang, C.Y., 1970. Nonlinear analysis of stress and strain in soils. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Division, ASCE 96 (SM5), 16291653. Duncan, J.M., Wright, S.G., Wong, K.S., 1990. Slope stability during drawdown. (May 1990) Proceedings of the H. Bolton Seed Memorial Symposium, vol. 2, pp. 253272. Fredlund, D.G., Xing, A., 1994. Equations for the soilwater characteristics curve. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 31, 521532.

8. Conclusions This paper describes the design of Cell 7 of the L8SR in western Palm Beach County, Florida, part of which was built on recently sedimented tailings consisting of low strength, low plasticity silt/ clay, and variably silty sand. Fully coupled steady state and transient seepage models with slope stability analyses were performed for operational and rapid drawdown conditions, using both LEM and FESBM techniques. The results of the analyses showed that a LEM analysis using a method that satises both force and moment equilibrium (i.e., Spencer's Method) agreed closely with more complex FESBM based models. Additionally, results using a linear elastic soil behavior model for FESBM analysis were compared with more complex constitutive models for the low plasticity silt/clay and variably silty sand tailings. The linear elastic soil behavior model gave comparable and reasonable values of stress distribution during both steady state and rapid drawdown analyses. However, for the modeling of higher plasticity tailings materials, more complex material models should be studied.

Factor of Safety

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