| Application | GeoStudio |
| Original Title | Investigating static liquefaction as a potential mode of failure for Edenville dam via numerical simulation |
| Original Author | V. Castonguay |
| Publication year | 2022 |
| Date created | 19 June 2025 |
| Date modified | 19 June 2025 |
| Keywords | GeoStudio, Edenville Dam, dam failure, static liquefaction, intense rainfall, SIGMA/W, NorSand, reservoir rise, embankment stability, rapid saturation, failure mechanism |
Abstract
On May 19th, 2020, Edenville Dam (Michigan) failed after the area was subjected to intense rainfall. An independent forensic team (IFT) released a preliminary report in which three probable causes of failure are identified. The IFT considers static liquefaction of the embankment to be the most probable cause of failure. The objective of this paper is to perform a simple investigation of static liquefaction as a potential mode of failure for Edenville dam. The SIGMA/W software (GeoStudio) is used to simulate the rise of reservoir level during the rainfall and its impact on the overall stability of the dam. The NorSand constitutive model is used to model the dam body. While many hypotheses are made to conduct this simplified study, the simulation results nevertheless show that static liquefaction of the dam is indeed possible as a direct consequence of the rapid increase in reservoir level.
This paper was presented at the GeoCalgary 2022, and is available here:
Investigating static liquefaction as a potential mode of failure for Edenville dam via numerical simulation - Castonguay (2022); ResearchGate
Citation
Castonguay, Vincent. (2022). Investigating static liquefaction as a potential mode of failure for Edenville dam via numerical simulation.