ABSTRACT
Transverse cracks often exists in earth core or rockfill dams, which is one of the most important factors that jeopardizes the safety of earth core dams (Sherard 1992; Gu 1982), since it may cause leakage, hydraulic fracturing and even dam failure during the reservoir impounding period. Core rockfill dams with discontinuous gradients of abutment slopes are easy to create differential settlement during its consolidation period, and it may be the main reason for transverse cracking inside the core. It is necessary to study its mechanism, developing processes, and relevant preventing measures. Centrifuge simulation technique has been proved as an important tool in dealing with the soil crack problems in the past years (Zhu et al. 1991; Shcherbina & Olymplev 1991; Zhu 1994, Li et al. 2002, Zhang et al. 2008).
