Design of Filter

Basic Concept
 Filter requirement Areas
Filters are required wherever water is seeping from less
pervious into more pervious materials. Such seepage
occurs at various locations in an earthfill dam and its
foundation. The following are the potential locations in an
earthfill dam where filter is required.

1. Between core and the d/s shell of the dam

2. Between u/s portion of homogeneous dam and the
chimney drain
3. Between foundation and horizontal drainage blanket
4. Between foundation and relief wells
5. Between u/s shell and riprap
6. Between core and the u/s shell
 Filter Design Considerations:
• There are two main considerations, which
should be kept in mind while designing filter
gradation.
• The size of the voids in the filter material should
be small enough to hold the larger particles of
the protected material in place.
• The filter material should have a high
permeability to prevent build up of large
seepage forces and hydrostatic pressures in the
filters.
 Filter Design Criteria
USBR (1977) method for filter design:
1. D15 of filter/D85 of base soil =5 or less (to satisfy condition #1)
2(a) D15 of filter/D15 of base soil =5 to 40 (to satisfy condition #2)
2(b) The filter should not contain more than 5 % of fine (minus #200 sieve),
further
fines should be cohesion less
3. The grain size curve of the filter material should be roughly parallel to that of
the base material
4. Max. size of the filter particles should not be more than 75 mm to avoid
segregation during placement
5. For base material, which includes gravel particles, the filter should be
designed on the basis of the gradation of the base soil finer than # 4 sieve.
This is in recognition that broadly graded clay-sand-gravel mixes may not
‘self filter’ and the clay may erode through a filter designed on the bases of
overall gradation.
6. When drain pipes are to be embedded in the embankment, it is required to
place filter around it, the design requirement is
- D85 of filter/slot width = 1.2 or more
- D85 of filter/hole diameter = 2 or more
 Design Example
• Average gradation curve of the foundation soil of a dam is shown in
figure on the following page. A toe drain with opening of 0.5 inch is
to be installed. Design the filter gradation to be placed around it.

• From gradation curve, it is found that

• D15 of soil = 0.006 mm
• D85 of soil = 0.1 mm
Design of Filter
 Solution-Design Example
• Filter design
• Upper limit of D15 of filter = the smaller of the value: 40 x D15 (0.24 mm) of
soil and 5 x D85 (0.5 mm) of soil so upper limit of D15 of filter is 0.24 mm
• Lower limit of D15 of filter = 5 x D15 (0.03 mm)
• To meet condition 1 and 2 and the criterion of parallelism, sand shown as
F1 can be selected.
• For filter F1 D15=0.14 mm and D85 = 2.4mm
• Least D85 of F1 should be 1 inch or 25 mm. The material of F1 is too fine to
be placed around drain pipe with opening of 0.5 inch since the requirement
is that D85 of the filter to be at least 2 x 0.5 =1 inch; hence a second filter
is required.
• Design of 2nd Filter
• Upper limit of D15 of 2nd filter (F2) = the smaller of the value: 40 x D15 (5.6
mm) of F1 and 5 x D85 (12 mm) of F1 so upper limit of D15 of F2 is 5.6 mm
• Lower limit of D15 of filter = 5 x D15 of F1 (0.7 mm)
• Least D85 of F2 should be 1 inch or 25 mm
• To meet condition 3, 4 and 5 and the criterion of parallelism, the gravel
shown as F2 can be selected.
• D85 of F2 is 50 mm which is more than 1 inch which is required. Hence F2
is OK.
HOW TO CHECK SELFILTERING ABILITY OF MATERIAL
Filter Design for Poorly Graded Base Material
Filter Design for Poorly Graded Base Material