One of the most important factors in the degradation and eventually destruction of embankment dams is leakage from different parts therein. In embankment dams under normal conditions, employing grain filters is often proposed as the first option. In case access to granular materials is challenging or economically unfeasible, using a plethora of geosynthetics, especially geotextiles, which alleviates almost all the disadvantages of the traditional method, is highly recommended. In this research, the effect of geotextile on drainage and filtration at varying discharge rates was examined by modeling a real-life embankment dam (Ahuiyeh Baft dam). The authors hope that this research will determine the optimal filtration condition, which is a combination of grain filters and geotextile layers, to be used in designing dams. After constructing 61 models (1 real-life and 60 software-simulated models using geotextiles), the results from real-life dam model with grain drainage and filtration and a thickness of 50 cm, and models with geotextile filtration and drainage were compared and analyzed. The grain-filter model with a thickness of 10 cm, 5 layers of type 2 geotextiles, and the same technical specifications of the real-life dam, increased the total stress in the x and y directions by 1.14 and 1.21 times, respectively, and its safety factor in permanent seepage conditions was determined to be 1.616 using static analysis, and, thus, was selected as an optimal alternative to the 50-cm thick grain-filter.
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