Filter testing of broadly graded cohesionless tills

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JEANLAFLEUR
Dkpartement de Gknie civil, Ecole Polytechnique, Campus de I' Universitk de Morltrkal, C.P. 6079, Succ. A, Montreal,
P.Q.,Canada H3C 3A7
Received October 20, 1983
Accepted June 18, 1984
Filter criteria have generally been checked experimentally with relatively uniform bases (protected soils). However, these
criteria may not be applicable when nonuniform soils are used, especially broadly graded cohesionless tills with nonlinear grain
size curves. Such soils were extensively used at the James Bay project as impervious core material, and a testing programme was
undertaken to establish the margin of safety associated with the application of current filter criteria: the design was based on the
arbitrarily defined portion of the base soil grain size curve. Also, a more general objective of the programme was to assess the role
that self-filtration plays in the filtration process of such broadly graded cohesionless soils.
This paper presents and discusses the factors that have been found relevant in the development of a representative laboratory
simulation of the complex filtration phenomenon; namely, maximum particle size, density, saturation of the samples, direction of
flow, intensity of the gradients, and development of hydraulic fracturing. Some preliminary test results are given for a till from
the LG-3 dam that showed a marked bend in the grain size curve at D = 0.8 mm. It is seen that particles coarser than this size do
not significantly influence the self-filtration process. Finally, the test results demonstrate that the filters specified for the LG-3
project are more than adequate.
Key words: earth dam, filtration, broadly graded cohesionless soils, internal erosion, laboratory tests, design.
De f a ~ o gCnCrale,
n
les critbres de filtre ont CtC vCrifiCs expkrimentalement avec des bases (sol protCgC) relativement uniformes.
On peut cependant douter de l'applicabilitk de ces critbres sur des sols non uniformes, en particulier les tills tr&sCtalCs non
cohCrents ayant de plus une courbe granulomCtrique non linCaire. Ce sont des sols semblables qui ont CtC utilisCs couramment
c o m e noyaux impermCables des barrages au projet de la Baie James et un programme d'essais a CtC entrepris afin d'ktablir la
marge de sCcuritC resultant de l'application des critbres de filtre conventionnels: la conception du filtre est basCe sur la portion fine
de la courbe granulomCtrique des bases "coupCes" sur un tamis arbitraire. Un objectif plus large de cette recherche vise d'autre
part, a Ctablir le rBle de l'auto-filtration dans le procCdC de filtration.
Cet article dCcrit donc les facteurs pertinents 21'Claboration d'une modClisation en laboratoire d'un phCnombne aussi complexe
que la filtration: grosseur maximum des particules, densite, saturation des Cchantillons, direction de l'Ccoulement, intensite
des gradients et possibilitC de fracturation hydraulique. Des rksultats prCliminaires d'essais effectuCs sur un till de LG-3 avec
coupure marquCe dans la courbe granulomCtrique autour de 0,8 mm indiquent que les particules plus grosses que ce diambtre
n'ont que peu d'influence sur l'auto-filtration. D'autre part, les essais ont montrt que les filtres spCcifiCs au projet LG-3 sont
amplement stcuritaires.
Mots clks: barrage en terre, filtration, sols non cohCrents a granulometrie trbs CtalCe, Crosion interne, essais de laboratoire,
conception.
Can. Geotech. J. 21, 634-643 (1984)

Introduction
Because of the complex interaction between seeping
water and the soils grains at a base-filter interface, filter
criteria have been essentially developed through filter
testing rather than theoretical assessment. Most of all,
experiments were devoted to checking Terzaghi's
criteria, which, from geometric considerations, related
the filtration capacity of a filter to D l S 1 (diameter
corresponding to 15% passing): it was postulated that a
filter material would retain a representative base
particles dsS1if Dl5 is chosen to be less than 4 times dg5.
On the other hand, the filter has to be more permeable
than the base material, and to achieve this condition, the
permeability criterion prescribes D l 5 to be at least 4
'NOTE:capital D refers to coarser filter particles diameter,
lower case d to finer base particles diameter.

times d I 5 . These criteria were subsequently checked

experimentally by many researchers, as listed in Table
1.
The tested soils were classified according to the
Unified Soil Classification System (U.S .C.S .) and the
coefficient of uniformity (C,) was deduced from the
grain size curves given in these papers. It can be seen
that most of the bases were classified SP with C,
generally below 6, a few tests however being performed
on nonplastic silts ML. Filter materials ranged between
SP, SW, GP, and GW; the influence of using
well-graded filters has been specifically studied by the
United States Corps of Engineers (1941), Sherman
(1953), and Karpoff (1955). The tests were carried out
on samples submitted to upward or downward gradients,
the intensity of which varied between 1 and 30, the
higher values being justified by the fact that they were

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LAFLEUR

believed to compensate for the relatively short duration

(few hours) of the tests. Saturation of the samples or the
presence of air in fine-grained soils was noted as a
hroblem in the interpretation of test results. However,
most of the tests were reported unstable when particle
migration was observed visually through transparent
permeameters and confirmed by grain size analysis
before and after flow. The division between stable and
unstable combination was then used to propose
geometric criteria for filters, based solely on grading,
neglecting hydraulic conditions and thickness of the
filter.
These criteria are given in Table 1 and they support
Terzaghi's original criteria. Apart from this, some
requirements have been added as regards median sizes
D50 and d-50 of filter and base diameters, respectively,
depending upon their coefficient of uniformity: with
well-graded base or filter the criteria were slightly
relaxed, but parallelism of both grain size curves was
nevertheless specified.
However, when using broadly graded soils, the Earth
Manual (United States Bureau of Reclamation 1974)
specifies that
when a naturally graded base material contains more than
10% of gravel but also has more than 10% of fines, the
filter limits should sometimes be based on the minus No.
4 fraction of the base material to adequately protect the
fines from washing into the filters.

Cedergren (1977) recommends placing filter limits

on the minus No. 20 fraction whereas Sherard et al.
(1963) put it on the minus 1 in. fraction. The arbitrary
nature of this prescription requires one to rely on
experience or on experiments to determine what criteria,
other than that defined by these sieves, adequate filter
design should follow.
Considering the shape of the curves of Fig. 1 that
gives the typical grain size curves of the tills used as core
material in the dams of the James Bay project, one has to
determine on which representative base grain size filter
design is to be made.

635

curve, the tills generally show a more or less sharp break

between sieve No. 60 and sieve No. 10. This bend
means that the tills are mainly constituted of equally
distributed particles smaller than 0.4-2.0 mm, the
larger gravels floating in this matrix. On the finer part of
the curve, one can observe the lack of particles smaller
than 2 pm. This low percentage (generally less than
10%) explains the fact that no consistency limit test can
be run on these soils and that they are nonplastic.
Furthermore, extensive triaxial testing on saturated
samples moulded at different water contents near
optimum and consolidated at pressures ranging between
100 and 3000 kPa showed no cohesion intercept (Lafleur
et al. 1980). To check this lack of cohesion, a simple test
was done on a typical sample: a cylindrical specimen
was compacted with Proctor standard energy in a
150 mm mould, extracted, and put in a shallow tray. The
tray was subsequently flooded to eliminate capillary
suction and the sample soon collapsed. These facts
would suggest that the James Bay tills are unlikely to
sustain open cracks after the saturation of a dam by
impounding water and that hydraulic fracturing can
hardly be identified as a possible mechanism of internal
erosion as proposed by Vaughan and Soares (1982).
Assuming, therefore, that the tills behave like granular
material as regards resistance to piping, a testing
programme was undertaken to evaluate compatibility of
filters that have been chosen a priori according to
previous experience: the James Bay filters were
originally designed on the fraction passing the 1 in. sieve
(Par6 et al. 1978) and subsequently changed to the
fraction passing sieve No. 4 (Part et al. 1982).

Development of a proper testing method

As for the filter experiments already cited, the
laboratory simulation on the James Bay tills was
intended to reproduce the most representative field
conditions. The methodology therefore took into
account the conditions given below.

(a) Maximum particle size and density

Base or filter particles as large as 38 mm should be
present
in the permeameter and the specimens were
Applicability of conventional filter criteria
compacted
to in situ minimum density conditions; the
to the James Bay tills
James Bay specifications were 97% of the standard
Broadly graded tills have been used extensively in the Proctor maximum dry density for the till core and 70%
James Bay project in northern Qutbec (Par6 et al. 1978) relative density for the filters.
where their presence is general near dam sites. They are
relatively sandy (Scott 1976) and their coefficient of (b)Saturation of the samples
Since internal migration of particles is likely to take
uniformity varies from 8 to 360, which largely exceeds
the values of previously tested bases. Their percent of place only under full reservoir conditions with maxifines is between 15 and 50%, resulting in coefficients of mum pore pressures in the order of 500-1000 kPa, care
permeability ranging between 1 X lop7 and 3 X lop4 was taken to achieve this condition by applying a back
cm/s depending mainly on the relative contents of pressure. If this was not done, it was believed that the
gravel, sand, and silt and on their placement water con- capillary stresses induced during compaction of the
tent (Gigubre 1982). On the coarse side of the grain size sample would generate an apparent cohesion between

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TABLE1. Filter testing and filter criteria

U.S.C.S. classification
Reference

Base

C,

Filter

C,

Resulting grading criterion

Terzaghi and Peck

(1948)
Bertram (1940)

U.S. Corps of
Engineers (1941)

Saturation of samples by vacuum and use of

air filter
Da and Ua flow, i b = 8-20, tC = 2-4 h
F.C.": visual observation and grain size
analysis
SP-SM

2.0

SP
SW
GW

(1) D I 5 / d 8 5< 5, (2) Parallelism of grain

size curves

>

z
Q

38
?=

Saturation of samples by percolation

D flow, i = 2, t = variable
F.C.: visual observation

sr
!2

U.S. Corps of
Engineers (1948)

Sherman (1953)

Remarks

D and U flow, i = 1-25 (+ vibrations)

F.C.: visual observation
C, base < 1.5: (1) D I 5 / d g 5< 6,
(2) D I S / ~ <
I S20, (3) Dso/d50 < 25
1.5 < C, base <4.0: (1) D15/ds5< 5,
(2) D15/d15 < 20, (3) &old50 < 25
C, base > 4.0: (1) D l 5 / d X 5< 5,
(2) D15/d15< 40, (3) D50/d50 < 25

D flow, i = 1-16 (+ vibrations), t = 3 h

F.C.: visual observation and grain size
analysis

-X
P

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CAN. GEOTECH. J. VOL. 21, 1984

U.S.
100

No ZOO

60

40
I

STANDARD

SIEVE

20

I0

3/8

ACCEPTABLE

////

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I -

RANGE FOR

T I L L GRADATION

PARTICLE SIZE ( M M )

FIG. 1. Typical grain size curves for cohe:sionless tills used in the James Bay project.

the individual grains, and that this cohesion would placed by hand at 70% relative density to a height of
dampen the effect of the flow on particles, thus leading 200 mm; testing conditions are given in Table 2.
to results on the unconservative side.
At the base of the filter, a filter paper covered the
porous stone to prevent any passage of fines into the
(c)Intensity of the hydraulic gradients
hydraulic circuit. Since these samples were jacketed in a
Flow net studies on current earth dam sections
rubber membrane, a synthetic filter cloth wrapped the
assuming homogeneous material in the core and an
granular filter to avoid perforation of the membrane by
absence of internal erosion have shown that a maximum
sharp particles. However, the confining of the till by a
gradient of 8 is probable near filter-base interfaces.
rubber membrane prevented preferential circulation ofparticles along this boundary; this factor often led to
( d ) Direction of the hydraulic gradients
Hydraulic gradients can have any possible direction at misjudgments when rigid permeameters were used in
filter interfaces, depending upon their geometry. the filter testing reported in the literature.
However, it is believed that downward flow simulates
the most adverse conditions, since, in this case, the (b)Application of a back pressure
According to Table 2, the initial degree of saturation
seeping or drag force on the particles acts in the same
direction as gravity. (In horizontal flow, which is the of the till after compaction ranged between 38 and 64%
case for most of the James Bay dams, the drag force acts and this had to be increased to 100%. So the back
pressure was applied in steps to achieve a B ratio
perpendicular to gravity.)
(AulAa) close to 1.0. During this operation and
The above requirements lead to the use of the throughout the tests a maximum effective cell pressure
permeameter cell shown in Fig. 2 and described in detail of 100 kPa was maintained to insure a positive contact
by Cummins (1981). The tests had the features between the membrane and the sample. A typical graph
described below.
of B versus applied back pressure is given in Fig. 3. It
can be shown that full saturation was attained when the
(a) Specimen size and placement
The diameter was 150 mm so it would be possible to back pressure was of the order of 800 kPa. (Checks of
incorporate in varying percentages particles with a water absorption during this phase and measurements at
maximum diameter of 38 mm. The top till samples were the end of the tests confirmed this fact.)
compacted in a mould 150 mm in diameter and 150 mm
in height at the optimum water content; previous (c)Application of the hydraulic gradients
experience with such material suggested that one-third
After a short period to allow consolidation, the
of the Proctor standard energy was necessary to achieve gradients were applied in steps up to a value of 8 for a
a dry density in the order of 97% of the maximum. The total test duration varying between 50 and 880 h. The
samples were subsequently extracted from the compac- overall gradients (Ah/(LB + LF)) were kept constant by
tion mould and put over the bottom filter previously use of a calibrated spring that compensated for the loss

LAFLEUR

u
11

D C D T CONNECTED T O
BACK PRESSURE

DATA ACQUI

("-- 7 0 0 h P o )

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0:

SOLENOID

DOWNSTREAM

L
W
I-

OMETERS

______I

SOLEN.
VALVES

CYLINDRICAL

RUBBER MEMBRANE

---

B Y P A S S ClRCUl
FOR UPSTREAM
TANK. REFILLING
DIAMETER

150 M M

FLOW CIRCUIT
P R E S S U R E TRANSDUCER
CONNECTED TO DATA AC. SYST.
C E L L PRESSURE
("

804 kP.)

S Y N T H E T I C FILTER C L O T H

-FILTER

PAPER

FIG. 2. Filter test apparatus.

TABLE2. Test conditions

Test No.

Base No.
Yd ( w / m 3 )
W (%)

Relativecompaction(%)
Initial S, (%)

4A

5A

B-3
20.26
7.2
96.5
63.5

B-3
19.89
6.6
94.8
54.0

B-3
20.06
6.7
95.6
56.7

B-3
19.17
7.4
91.4
52.5

B-3
19.07
7.5
91.0
52.3

B-3
19.64
7.5
93.6
58.3

B-3
19.45
7.5
92.7
56.2

B-1
18.25
6.4
96.0
38.4

B-2
19.06
6.9
95.5
48.0

B-1
18.74
6.4
98.6
42.0

B-2
19.03
6.9
95.4
47.7

of weight in the upstream tank as flow proceeded. The

hydraulic circuits had been designed to reduce head
losses to a minimum for the prescribed flow rates.
Because of the large range in the permeability of tested
materials (10-~-10-~cm/s), water was recirculated by
means of a system of solenoid valves that ensured
refilling of the upstream bottle when it was empty.

Finally, since the overall permeability changes would be

an indicator of the behaviour of the filter-base
combination, continuous recordings of the weight of the
downstream bottle were taken by means of a data
acquisition system, at different time intervals.
Particle migration was evaluated on the basis of the
weight of fines smaller than the smallest filter particle;

640

CAN. GEOTECH. J. VOL. 21. 1984

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TEST

NO. I

( B A S E 8 - 3)

corresponding ds5, dh5 (based on the minus No. 4

fraction), and DI5. The duration of the filtration period
is also given.
The influence of the degree of saturation was checked
in tests 4 and 4A; a 760 kPa back pressure was used in
the first case and the second test was conducted at
atmospheric pressure. The influence of duration was
studied when comparing tests No. 5 and 5A, the first
lasting 50 h and the second, 880 h.

Test results
In the lower part of Table 3 (row 7), the weight of
particles that migrated through the filter is reported as
defined in the preceding section and this test series
500
1000
indicates a clear-cut demarcation between success and
failure. Except for test No. 3 with 1.6% of migrated
BACK PRESSURE I k P a l
particles, the combinations involving filters F-1, F-2,
FIG.3. Pore pressure coefficient B vs. applied back pressure. and F-4 received a very limited amount (0.3-0.9%) of
particles. In fact, changes were nearly imperceptible by
they were collected in the lower third of the filter at the visual inspection upon dismantling of the samples and
end of the test and their weight was subsequently these combinations were reported as stable.
expressed as a percentage of the initial weight of that
However, filter tests involving any of the bases with
filter portion. It was assumed that these particles had filter F-5 (DI5 = 14.7 mm) had a completely different
failed to be filtered and their relative amount, in appearance at the end of the test; fine particles had
combination with a visual inspection, was an indication accumulated upwards from the bottom filter paper and
of the success or failure of a given filter combination. the base soil changed in height appreciably owing to loss
However, there was generally considerable interpene- of its particles.
tration of base particles in the upper third of the filter,
The bottom rows of Table 3 give Terzaghi's piping
especially in the first centimetre.
ratios when considering the whole grain size (row 9) and
For practical reasons, the flow occurred perpendicular the fraction smaller than sieve No. 4 (row 10). The first
to the compaction layers; although this fact would depart case appears to be irrelevant as regards filtration since
from reality in zoned dams, it was not believed to induce the test results indicate that. even if the articles coarser
any structural anisotropy or at least any particle than 1.0 mm (sieve No. 20) can repreient as much as
segregation that would invalidate the conclusions as 30% by weight of the whole bases, their number is not
regards the geometric compatibility between a given sufficient to influence the filtration process: these
base soil and filter.
particles are floating inside a finer matrix.
The procedure followed was therefore analogous to
Yet for these particular base soils, the critical piping
previous filter tests found in the literature since it aimed ratio (8.4) computed from the fraction smaller than sieve
to establish threshold conditions between stability and No. 4, above-which failure occurred, appears to be
instability by comparing representative grain sizes of comparable to the value of 9 found by Bertram (1940).
two materials, a base and a filter. The objective of the From limited evidence, it seems, therefore, that the
programme was twofold: (1) to establish the margin of self-filtration acts on particles finer than a representative
safety associated with the application of conventional diameter that fortuitously was the same as that given by
filter criteria based on the minus No. 4 fraction of the the fraction passing sieve No. 4. More generally, this
base material; and (2) to evaluate the influence of the diameter is likely to be related to the shape of the grain
maximum base particle size on the unstable combina- size curve: the arrows on Fig. 4, for example, suggest
tions.
that particles smaller than 0.9mm are distributed
Tests were made on bases containing particles passing uniformly enough to act on one another at their
the 1 in. sieve, the 8 in. sieve, and the No. 4 sieve, whose respective points of contact and thus ensure selfrespective grain sizes are given in Fig. 4. The bases B-1 , filtration to occur. Coarser particles are not numerous
B-2, and B-3 have increasing maximum sizes; they enough to intervene in the process.
show a marked bend in their curve at sieve No. 20 and
AS-regards the influence-of time on the development
they contain very few clayey particles. The filters F-1 to of failure, a comparison of tests 5 and 5A indicates that
F-5 have the same maximum diameter (38 mm) but most of the migration occurs within 50 h. This fact has
different minimum diameters. Table 3 gives the also been reported by Bertram (1940), who observed

LAFLEUR
US

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Wo 200

60

40

20

STA'iOIRD

SIEVE

10

3/8

3/4

PARTICLE SIZE (mm)

FIG.4. Gradations for filter testing.

TABLE
3. Test results
Test No.

(1) Base
(2) dss (mm)
(3) d& (mm)
(4) Filter
(5) D I S(mm)
(6) Test duration (h)
(7) Percent migration (%)
(8) Resulta

B-3

B-3

B-3

B-3

B-3

6.6
0.7
F-1
0.25
50
0.4
S

6.6
0.7

6.6
0.7

F-2
1.0
70
0.8
S

F-3
3.2
75
1.6
S

6.6
0.7
F-4
5.9
800
0.9
S

6.6
0.7
F-4
5.9
800
0.4
S

0.04
0.4

0.2
1.4

0.5
4.6

0.9
8.4

0.9
8.4

Terzaghi's piping ratio

(9) D15/ds,sb
(10) D l d d s s
5,U: stable, unstable.
bdi5:based on the fraction smaller than sieve No. 4.

that the movement of the base layer and the rearrangement of the grains occurred only at the very beginning of
the test. It is to be noted, however, that when filtration
time was increased from 50 h (test No. 5) to 880 h (test
No. 5A), the percent migration increased from 6.4 to
6.9%, indicating that the process of erosion, after a
relatively sudden triggering, is still continuing with time
but at a slower rate.
The influence of the degree of saturation can only be
assessed from the results of tests No. 4 and 4A, both
stable combinations. In the saturated sample, the
amount of migrated particles was double that of the
unsaturated sample. In this regard, a test with the coarser

filter F-5 (an unstable combination) would have been

more meaningful in quantifying the apparent cohesion
induced by incomplete saturation. It is to be noted,
however, that the permeability changes with time, as
shown in Fig. 5, are more drastic in the unsaturated
sample No. 4A, especially at low gradient. This fact
casts some doubt on the use of permeability decrease as a
failure criterion in filter testing, especially on unsaturated samples.
Finally, the gradation envelope specified for the filters
of the James Bay project shown in Fig. 4 indicates that
the maximum allowable value for D I 5is 1.3 mm; the test
programme gave a critical value for D I 5 of 5.9 mm,

CAN. GEOTECH. J. VOL. 21, 1984

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TEST N o . 4 4

TEST No. 4

1-8-

Sr

85%

Sr

100%

TESTNo.4A

8
I

0.1
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

BOO

900

IMX)

T I M E (HOURS)

FIG.5. Permeability vs. time (tests No. 4 and 4A).

which is considerably higher, meaning thereby that an

adequate margin of safety can be relied upon, assuming
that the test conditions are representative of in situ
behaviour.

Concluding remarks
A filter testing programme has been undertaken to
reproduce, in the laboratory, the most representative
conditions that are likely to occur at the core-filter
interface when a broadly graded cohesionless till is
submitted to a steady unidirectional flow. Filter tests
analogous to those previously found in the literature
have been done on broadly graded tills that showed a
marked bend in their grain size curve at sieve No. 20
(1 mm) and that contained no clay size particles. The till
samples were recompacted at densities that were less
than 97% of the Proctor standard. simulating
" conditions
that are worse than the minimum specifications. The
flow was downwards, implying that the viscous drag of
the water on the particles was acting in the same
direction as gravity, still another severe condition. The
hydraulic gradients were unidirectional and limited to 8,
reflecting normal seepage conditions where no internal
migration, anisotropy,- or heterogeneity have been
assumed to occur. Steady flow is more representative of
the operating conditions of James Bay dams, although it
is believed that alternating flow would produce
conditions more drastic for destroying arching or
bridging between particles, which may lead to collapse
of the structure.
The intensity of the gradients has been estimated from
flow nets drawn assuming homogeneity of the different
zones. Although increasing the permeability anisotropy
ratio to 100 in the core material was found to raise the
free surface, the flow nets showed that the gradients at

the base-filter were not increased significantly beyond

the value of 8.
The filtration tests were made on a given till from
LG-3 having a relatively linear size gradation curve up
to 1.O mrn, above which size it contained from 10 to 30%
of particles. When filters of increasing sizes were compared, the critical combination appeared to be the same,
irrespective of the percent of particles coarser than
1.0 mm, indicating that filter design for this particular
application should be made on the fraction smaller than
1.O mm. Furthermore, the critical combinations were
obtained for a piping ratio ( D I 5 / d g 5of) 8.4, a value that
is close to those obtained by Bertram (1940).
Finally, the tests have been interpreted only according
to geometric considerations when comparing grain sizes
of both materials and assuming that no major modification in the structure of the base soil is to occur under
stress redistribution at the filter interface of the dam. It is
believed that open cracks leading to the piping
mechanism for cohesive soils as proposed by Vaughan
and Soares (1982) will not take place in the James Bay
tills. Rather, the roof or sides of such caverns or canals
would rapidly collapse upon saturation by impoundment
and in such an event, all sizes of particles would be
available at the filter-base interface to initiate and
enforce the process of self-filtration.

Acknowledgments
The author wishes to express his gratitude to Alain
Cummins and Simon Chiche, graduate students, for
initiating this testing programme and to Jean-Jacques
Par6 from la SociCt6 d7Energiede la Baie James for his
encouragement in pursuing this research. Financial
support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering

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Research Council of Canada (Grant RD-60 Project

0104) is also acknowledged.

I
I

BELYASHEVSKII,
N. N., BUGAI,N. G., KALANTYRENDO,
I. I.,
and TOPCHII,S. L. 1972. Behaviour and selection of the
composition of graded filters in the presence of a fluctuating
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