Location
Arlington, Virginia
Date
15 Aug 2008, 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Abstract
The inherent features of concrete face rockfill dams and the trend of building higher dams have been recently questioned by three recent incidents where major dams have experienced significant cracking in the central portion of the dam after the first filling. The incidents include the dams of Mohale in South Africa, and Barra Grande and Campos Novos in Brazil, the last one being the highest dam of its type built in the world. The design and development of CFRD dams, have been based primarily on precedent and empiricism, however, these recent incidents have shown that the extrapolation of precedent with the current procedures can have serious consequences. This paper present the recent behavior of some of these high dams, as well as the development of numerical analyses (FEM) capable of reproducing observed behavior. It also discuss the design features that are being considered to avoid this unacceptable observed behavior, and the numerical simulations that have been performed to validate these design features for the Porce III hydroelectric project.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2008 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Escobar, Camilo Marulanda and Posada, Alberto Marulanda, "Recent Experience on Design, Construction and Performance of CFRD Dams" (2008). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 9.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/6icchge/session11b/9
Recent Experience on Design, Construction and Performance of CFRD Dams
Arlington, Virginia
The inherent features of concrete face rockfill dams and the trend of building higher dams have been recently questioned by three recent incidents where major dams have experienced significant cracking in the central portion of the dam after the first filling. The incidents include the dams of Mohale in South Africa, and Barra Grande and Campos Novos in Brazil, the last one being the highest dam of its type built in the world. The design and development of CFRD dams, have been based primarily on precedent and empiricism, however, these recent incidents have shown that the extrapolation of precedent with the current procedures can have serious consequences. This paper present the recent behavior of some of these high dams, as well as the development of numerical analyses (FEM) capable of reproducing observed behavior. It also discuss the design features that are being considered to avoid this unacceptable observed behavior, and the numerical simulations that have been performed to validate these design features for the Porce III hydroelectric project.
