Design and Analysis of a High Dam under Construction Material Constraint Condition (Case Study: Wolkayite High Dam
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In many countries, dams are currently under construction and to due constructed to impound water for different purposes such as flood control, water supply, irrigation, energy generation, and recreation as well as pollution control. Nowadays utilization of selected materials for making the dam body is vital and very common. In cases of high embankment dam projects, which require large volume construction material, availability and adequacy of selected material to the allotted quantity is crucial. Wolkayite high embankment dam project suffers by the presence of highly plastic clay and highly weathered shell material for the construction of its dam body. There is also abundant rockfill material, but require high processing to use resulting high project cost. In this paper, the author sought alternative material for the design and analysis of the dam by assessing different construction materials located within the economic distance of the project site satisfying different design standards in the area with comparable cost. As the dam is above 90% full throughout its design life, the u/s side of the dam was designed as free draining rockfill whereas the d/s side was designed as random fill surrounded by alluvial river gravel fill and rockfill materials. Using recommended design standards: basically USBR, USACE and other recommendations the design and analysis of Wolkayite High Dam was conducted using Geo-studio 2004 and PLAXIS 8.5 software products. Finally, the proposed material type was checked for different design criteria as fill materials making the dam body. Since the results gained after the analyses were in the recommended range, the author recommends this alternative design solution for the Wolkayite high dam project.
KEYWORDS: Design of embankment dams, Material selection, Wolkayite Dam, seepage, settlement, stability analysis.
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Keywords
Design of embankment dams, Material selection, Wolkayite Dam, Seepage, settlement, stability analysis