An investigation on dam settlement during and end of construction using instrumentation data and numerical analysis

In the present study, using instrumentation data regarding vertical and horizontal displacement of the dam have been analyzed. Also, the largest and most critical section of the Marvak earth dam is modeled with the behavioral model of the Mohr–Coulomb by GeoStudio software. Numerical modeling of the dam has been done considering the actual embankment conditions and to analyze the changes of the immediate settlement during construction and the consolidation settlement just after construction and initial impounding. The outcomes of instrumentation and numerical analysis at the end of Marvak dam construction showed a settlement between 20 and 500 mm. The results show that the settlement will occur during the construction at the upper levels and the end of construction at the middle levels of the dam. By comparing observed and predicted data, multivariate regression and the explanation coefficient criterion (R2) was found to be R2 = 0.9579, which shows a very good correlation between observed and predicted data, and represents a good match for the settlement points and their location with the initial conditions of the design, and the behavior of the dam in terms of the settlement is found to be stable.