CIVL4121

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 1

GEOTECHNICAL & GEOENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING CIVL 4121

Embankment Dams

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 2

Embankment dams

• Types of embankment dams – earth fill, rock fill• Site Choice – site selection, site investigation, geology• Materials• Clayey core materials

• clay mineralogy• dispersivity• compaction

• Filter requirements• Drain calculations – flow nets• Scour Protection• Tailings Dams

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 3

Some dam types

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 4

Worsley Alumina Refinery, CollieRefinery Catchment Lake Dam

Weathered granite foundation – clays, silts, sands

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 5

Harvey Dam (Collie, WA)

Typical earth embankment dam used in WA. Spillway shown on left. Below is the

downstream slope

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 6

Mundaring Dam, WA (water for the Goldfields)

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 7

Itaipu Dam (Brazil, Paraguay)Largest Hydro-Electric Power Station in the World

(until 3 Gorges Dam in China becomes fully operational)

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The different colored soils correspond to the upstream shell (left side), core (darkest), filter, and drain zone (lightest), and downstream shell.

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 9

The downstream filter and drain zones are the lighter-colored soils in the middle of this photo.

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 10

This photo shows a cross section through a rockfill dam in Norway that was constructed with an asphalt core only one meter thick. Norwegian engineers have developed this technology because

at some sites in Norway there is no clay available from which to make the core. Very high quality control is necessary for such a thin core.

CIVL 4121: Embankment Dams: 11

Here the asphalt core is under construction. The core and the adjacent transition zones are constructed to very exacting standards.