1. College of Construction Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130026, China; 2. Liaoning Electric Power Survey Design Institute, Shenyang 110005, China

Clogging effect, as a new concept in geological engineering, is a phenomenon of permeability decreasing under seeping in reservoir dam foundation of the alluvial and diluvial deposits with deep and thick layer, coarse particle and high permeability in mountains-gully rivers of Tibetan Plateau. A clogging infiltration instrument has been designed successfully and a series of simulation tests have been done. Based on large amounts of data, it is confirmed that the existence of the clogging effect and the law of infiltration clogging is found out. Three indexes are proposed such as“optimalsize of particle”, “optimalsize range of particle”and“characteristic pore”, which are closely related with effect of infiltration clogging. The concept and results can offer a new idea to solve problems on anti-seepage of dam foundation in mountains-gully rivers environment and to study artificial clogging, meanwhile supp lement of the concept of seepage deformation.