Influence of Cutoff Wall and Horizontal Drainage on Seepage Characteristics of Earth Dam
WANG Weiwei
ZONG Junzheng
Abstract：Taking a high earth-rock dam project as the research object,this paper conducts multi-parameter coupled seepage analysis of cutoff wall and horizontal drainage using Seep/W finite element software,systematically evaluating the effects of permeability coefficient,burial depth,and drainage length on dam foundation seepage volume and hydraulic gradient.The results show that when the permeability coefficient of the cutoff wall decreases to 10⁻⁹ m/s,the seepage path changes from vertical penetration to seepage around the wall,with a critical threshold of 10 ⁻ ⁷ m/s,at which the dam foundation seepage volume decreases by more than 80%.When the burial depth ratio of the cutoff wall increases to above 0.75,the seepage effect is significantly weakened,and when fully embedded in the dam foundation(burial depth ratio of 1),the hydraulic gradient stabilizes below 0.6.Parameter optimization results show that when the cutoff wall burial depth ratio is 0.75 and the drainage length is 150 m,the seepage volume and hydraulic gradient decrease by 64%and 55%respectively under their synergistic effect,balancing economy and safety.
Keywords：cutoff wallhorizontal drainageburial depth ratiohydraulic gradient
Publication Date：2026-07-20
Online Publishing Date：2026-09-16(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 88-92,98 )