Effect of uncertainties in field nucleodensimeter data on estimated hydraulic conductivity of compacted tills used in ECRD

Alexandra Tremblay Bouchard, Jean Côté, Marc Smith, Jean-Yves Morency

In the proceedings of: GeoOttawa 2017: 70th Canadian Geotechnical Conference; 12th joint with IAH-CNC

Session: Field Investigation II - CPT, Geophysics, etc.

ABSTRACT: The hydraulic performance of Earth Core Rockfill Dams (ECRD) is influenced by grain size distributions and compaction conditions. To ensure that design specifications are met, samples taken in the core are tested in laboratory for compliance to specified grain size distributions and moisture contents. In situ bulk density is measured with the nucleodensimeter and used jointly with moisture content data to compute dry density. The hydraulic conductivity can be estimated using dry density and grain size distribution. In situ bulk density measurements used to estimate hydraulic conductivities may exhibit a significant bias compared to mass-volume measurements which potentially lead to increased estimation errors. This paper presents the experimental program performed to establish the measurement bias of nucleodensimeter when compared to mass-volume measurements. The objective is to improve the estimation of hydraulic conductivity of dam till cores. de barrage en till (ECRD) est influencée par la granulométrie du matériau et par ses conditions de compactageeffectués pendant la construction. Des échantillons sont récoltés pour déterminer la teneur en eau et la granulométrie en laboratoire. La masse volumique humide est mesurée au nucléodensimètre et permet, avec la teneur en eau, de calculer la masse volumique sèche. La conductivité hydraulique peut être déterminée empiriquement en utilisant la masse volumique sèche et la granulométrie. La masse volumique mesurée au nucléodensimètre peut comporter un biais comparé à la masse volumique réelle et engendrer stimation de la conductivité hydraulique. Cet article porte sur un programme expérimental visant la détermination du biais entre la masse volumique mesurée au nucléodensimètre et la masse volumique réelle. nductivité hydraulique de noyaux de barrages construits en till.

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Cite this article:
Alexandra Tremblay Bouchard; Jean Côté; Marc Smith; Jean-Yves Morency (2017) Effect of uncertainties in field nucleodensimeter data on estimated hydraulic conductivity of compacted tills used in ECRD in GEO2017. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{geo2017Paper708,author = Alexandra Tremblay Bouchard; Jean Côté; Marc Smith; Jean-Yves Morency,title = Effect of uncertainties in field nucleodensimeter data on estimated hydraulic conductivity of compacted tills used in ECRD,year = 2017}