Experimental Assessment of Contact Erosion in Embankment Dams with Glacial Till Core

Abstract: Contact erosion is a type of  internal erosion which develops at the boundary between two varying soil layers inside a dam body under the condition of tangential water flow inside the coarser soil parallel to the boundary. As the behaviour of foundation is unknown as the grout curtain starts eroding after a couple of years. This zone between the embankment and foundation also leads to contact erosion.  Laboratory methods are a fast method of assessing the conditions for contact erosion to initiate as they do not involve a large investment like field testing methods. They also give an insight of the filter designs and long term stability of the dam core due to erosion.