Investigation of the effect of physico-chemical properties of soils used in dam embankments on their strength and dynamic parameters

Dams are structures that control the water stored in reservoirs and regulate the flow of rivers. When deciding to build a dam, material resources, dam location, foundation ground and topographic conditions are taken into consideration. Dams face many collapse problems throughout their construction and lifetime. Most of the failures in dams occur in earthfill dams, which constitute the majority of dams in the world. Failure of embankment dams is generally a gradual process. For this reason, the static and dynamic properties of embankment dam soils need to be well known. The design of embankment dams is made using input parameters such as cohesion, internal friction angle, density and shear modulus. It is investigated that physico-chemical properties also affect these input parameters, which are the static and dynamic properties of the soils. Artificial intelligence is used in every field today with the development of computer technologies. Using artificial intelligence solution techniques is one of the best methods to estimate the static and dynamic properties of soils. The relationships between the chemical, mineralogical, static and dynamic properties of the soils obtained from embankment dams should be examined with the help of artificial intelligence. In this thesis study, the static and dynamic parameters of soil samples taken from 22 earthfill dams in Eskişehir and surrounding provinces were determined. Then, the chemical and mineralogical properties of the soils were determined and the effects of these properties on static and dynamic parameters were examined. With the help of artificial intelligence methods, it has been determined that the physico-chemical properties of soils have a significant impact on their strength and dynamic parameters.