A Study on Geothermal Characteristics of Dam Body and Seepage Flow

댐 제체 및 침투수 흐름의 지열학적 고찰

In recent geotechnical engineering, geothermal approach has been on the horizon to deal with geoenvironmental issues, freezing and thawing problems, and seepage phenomenon in dams and embankments. In this study, geothermal characteristic through inner body of dams and its influence on the seepage flow were experimented by lab test and field instrumentation. Also, one of up-to-date temperature monitoring technique, called as multi-channel thermal line sensing, was evaluated its availability. As a result of lab test, it is found that the seepage flow has influence on the geothermal characteristic and a potential of finding phreatic line and seepage fluctuation could be possible by continuous temperature monitoring using thermal line sensing skills. These kine of geothermal information could be available to the modelling of water geo-structure interaction. Out of short-term field tests, clear water table and temperature distribution of a dam were easily found through temperature monitoring in holes located near a reservoir and holes within a depth of constant temperature layer. However, it is also found that the geothermal flow and finding seepage line could not be easily understandable through multi-channel temperature monitoring because of the existence of constant temperature field, thermal conductivity of soils and rocks, and unsaturated characteristics of geo-material. In this case, long-term geothermal monitoring is recommended to find sudden fluctuation of seepage line and amount of leakage.