Location
San Diego, California
Presentation Date
28 Mar 2001, 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Abstract
Success Dam, primarily a flood control and water conservation structure owned and operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, lies in Seismic Zone 3. During construction of the dam, the impervious core trench was excavated to either weathered bedrock or older alluvium. However, the pervious outer zones of the embankment were constructed on existing in-situ materials, including recent alluvium, that were only minimally prepared. In 1992, the Corps of Engineers concluded that the state-of-practice allowed for a better understanding of the seismic response of the alluvial soils than was previously available, and a study to update the seismic stability evaluation of Success Dam was initiated. A testing program using cross hole shear wave velocity measurements and Becker Penetration Tests followed. These initial explorations showed unusual and unexpected variations in the foundation. Additional exploration programs resulted in a total of 62 Becker Penetration Tests, 20 Standard Penetration Tests, and 39 cross hole shear wave velocity holes to understand a 1,500-foot-long section of the dam foundation. The final site characterization shows an unsuspected zone of weak material deep in the foundation under the upstream shell of the dam. Only through the use of multiple field exploratory techniques was the character of this complex site adequately revealed.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
4th International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2001 University of Missouri--Rolla, 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
Allen, Matthew G.; Nickell, John S.; and Sherer, Steve G., "Geotechnical Characterization of Success Dam for a Dam Safety Earthquake Engineering Evaluation" (2001). International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics. 8.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icrageesd/04icrageesd/session10/8
Included in
Geotechnical Characterization of Success Dam for a Dam Safety Earthquake Engineering Evaluation
San Diego, California
Success Dam, primarily a flood control and water conservation structure owned and operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, lies in Seismic Zone 3. During construction of the dam, the impervious core trench was excavated to either weathered bedrock or older alluvium. However, the pervious outer zones of the embankment were constructed on existing in-situ materials, including recent alluvium, that were only minimally prepared. In 1992, the Corps of Engineers concluded that the state-of-practice allowed for a better understanding of the seismic response of the alluvial soils than was previously available, and a study to update the seismic stability evaluation of Success Dam was initiated. A testing program using cross hole shear wave velocity measurements and Becker Penetration Tests followed. These initial explorations showed unusual and unexpected variations in the foundation. Additional exploration programs resulted in a total of 62 Becker Penetration Tests, 20 Standard Penetration Tests, and 39 cross hole shear wave velocity holes to understand a 1,500-foot-long section of the dam foundation. The final site characterization shows an unsuspected zone of weak material deep in the foundation under the upstream shell of the dam. Only through the use of multiple field exploratory techniques was the character of this complex site adequately revealed.
