GEOTECHNICAL ANALYSIS OF CARSINGTOM DAM FAILURE

This paper critically covers all the aspects of some selected dam failures around the world. The aim of the study is to examine the failures while the objectives are to; investigate the causes of the failures and to give possible recommendations. The materials used are journal articles. The methods involved are Google search with a view of extracting some relevant information on some selected dam failures. The result shows that factors responsible for the failure are due to geological, engineering and human factors. The geological factors are due to; heavy rains, flooding, earthquake, mud and water inundation, overtopping, thunderstorm, landfall, seismic activity, and torrential rainfall. The engineering factors are due to poor foundation, technical breakdown and foundation failure while the human factors are due to poor maintenance. These factors can cause immense damage to loss of life and property when they occur. Prior to the construction of dam, the services of geotechnical engineer and geologist should be sought in other to ensure its safety by carrying out detailed geotechnical and geological site investigations in other to know the surface and subsurface condition of the construction site. It is recommended that adequate geological, geophysical, geotechnical, geographic information technology, use of standard construction material, and regular monitoring should be carried out before and after dam construction.

Civil and Environmental Science

Besides having great benefits, dam also holds enormous potential dangers. The collapsed dam will cause devastating flood along the river resulting in loss of lives, properties, damage to public facilities and environment, especially in the downstream area. For safety and prevent the occurrence of the disaster, the operational of dam should always be monitored, inspected and maintained properly continually. With a good monitoring, dam managers will discover as early as possible the problems emerging in the dam, and then perform the appropriate steps to prevent the development of the problems. This paper will perform hydro-geotechnical analysis as a review current condition of slope stability based on the result of soil investigation on present dam condition and review instrumentations installed in Ngancar Dam.

The geophysical and geotechnical techniques were applied in order to determine the immediate and remote causes of a failed dam project in Cham area NE Nigeria. Details of site investigation for the Cham dam are presented. Geologically, the dam-site rests on the geologically disturbed Yolde Formation. The course of the Cham River is structurally controlled by the underlying strike-slip and dip-slip faults. Ground geological investigation revealed the presence of joints, faults and associated slicken-sides and shear zones as well as desiccation cracks within the rock formations. Geophysical investigations confirms that these joints and fault zone extends more than 35 meters below the river beds. It also revealed the presence of shally clay, lateritic dark clay, fissile shale and friable siltstone to depths of more than 35 meters below the river bed. Laboratory studies of the engineering properties of the rocks disclosed a mean optimum moisture content of 14.6% at a mean maximum dry density of 1.80 mg/m3, mean plasticity index value of 34.5% and a mean CBR value of 3% suggesting a highly weathered, plastic, friable and structurally weak rocks. These studies helped in explaining both the immediate and remote causes of the failed dam project. Keywords: Geological investigation, geophysical studies, laboratory studies, cham area, northeast, Nigeria

International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology (IJERT), 2015

https://www.ijert.org/the-causes-of-dam-failures-a-study-of-earthen-embankment-dams-on-the-copperbelt-province-of-zambia https://www.ijert.org/research/the-causes-of-dam-failures-a-study-of-earthen-embankment-dams-on-the-copperbelt-province-of-zambia-IJERTV4IS020273.pdf The prime purpose of this paper is to summarise the study that aimed at establishing the risks and causes of dam failures associated with earthen embankments dams on the Copperbelt province of the Republic of Zambia. The paper's methodology consisted of identifying dams with notable failure anomalies and then assessing them through field surveys. Also utilised were satellite and computer technologies namely; Google earth, Global mapper and GIS. Secondary data was involved by usage of annual reports, dam rehabilitation reports, assessment reports and contract documents in capturing of secondary data. The study revealed that the (43) assessed dams were subjected to a range of anomalies on the risks and cause of failures. The counts for these anomalies were presented into groupings. The first group had anomalies that were considered to be responsible for directly causing the failure of dams and this grouping was also referred to as lethal anomalies. However, in some instances these anomalies were analysed as risks of failures. The grouping lethal anomalies was generally given more attention and their listing and occurrences were as follows; overtopping at (37%) , followed by failures induced by sabotage at (26%) and then internal erosion at (21%), spillway impairments at (11%) and the least being blockage of spillway at (5%). Second is the grouping for non-lethal anomalies and these were anomalies that were noted to have only posed as risks of failure, but were not directly responsible for failure of dams. These anomalies included; letting trees to grow on embankments and spillway areas, embankment surface erosion, extreme habitation of reservoirs by aquatic weeds and extreme siltation of reservoir. Amongst the findings is a further probe into the aspect of failures by overtopping. This is because failure by overtopping came out to be a prominent cause of failures of dams in the study area. In this further probe it was revealed that from referral hydrological and hydraulic point of view, the majority (over 65%) of the assessed dams had undersigned spillways. The conclusion included lack of upholding of past hydrological observation on dam designs, lack of knowledge and non-adherence to guidelines, therefore resulting into ill design practices. Poor maintenance and management was also cited.

2015

The prime purpose of this paper is to summarise the study that aimed at establishing the risks and causes of dam failures associated with earthen embankments dams on the Copperbelt province of the Republic of Zambia. The paper's methodology consisted of identifying dams with notable failure anomalies and then assessing them through field surveys. Also utilised were satellite and computer technologies namely; Google earth, Global mapper and GIS. Secondary data was involved by usage of annual reports, dam rehabilitation reports, assessment reports and contract documents in capturing of secondary data. The study revealed that the (43) assessed dams were subjected to a range of anomalies on the risks and cause of failures. The counts for these anomalies were presented into groupings. The first group had anomalies that were considered to be responsible for directly causing the failure of dams and this grouping was also referred to as lethal anomalies. However, in some instances these anomalies were analysed as risks of failures. The grouping lethal anomalies was generally given more attention and their listing and occurrences were as follows; overtopping at (37%) , followed by failures induced by sabotage at (26%) and then internal erosion at (21%), spillway impairments at (11%) and the least being blockage of spillway at (5%). Second is the grouping for non-lethal anomalies and these were anomalies that were noted to have only posed as risks of failure, but were not directly responsible for failure of dams. These anomalies included; letting trees to grow on embankments and spillway areas, embankment surface erosion, extreme habitation of reservoirs by aquatic weeds and extreme siltation of reservoir. Amongst the findings is a further probe into the aspect of failures by overtopping. This is because failure by overtopping came out to be a prominent cause of failures of dams in the study area. In this further probe it was revealed that from referral hydrological and hydraulic point of view, the majority (over 65%) of the assessed dams had undersigned spillways. The conclusion included lack of upholding of past hydrological observation on dam designs, lack of knowledge and non-adherence to guidelines, therefore resulting into ill design practices. Poor maintenance and management was also cited.

A Dam is an abstraction or barrier built across a river or stream. At back Of the barrier, water gets collecting to form a pool of water that is termed as the upstream side of the dam. And the other one is the downstream part of the dam.

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) , 2020

Engineering geologists provide the basic geological and geotechnical recommendations based on certain details analysis and design associated survey. These structures include dam as the major construction project. Explains different aspects related to dams, types of dam and cause of failure. Natural disaster like earthquake, flood, rockslides, and poor design or lack of maintenance affect the dam structure. Failure of dams occur because of overtopping, inadequate spillway capacity, excessive seepage across the body, alkali aggregate reaction, cavitation in energy dissipaters, stresses due to external force, gates of dam not working effectively etc. Excessive scouring below spillway may be dangerous for foundation. Analysis and study of failed dam structure can give reasons behind the failure of any dam.

Embankment dams are built using embankment materials; so, resistive and hydraulic behaviors in these construction projects are more based on materials quality in the body of dam. Dams are among major geotechnical constructs and their ruptures can make irreparable damages; hence, it is necessary that all essential controls and sensibilities have been done in designing and constructing them. One of cases is controlling dam stability and the effect of used materials quality. Precise examination of embankment dams' stability, regarding to differences between the set of effective parameters and quality of used materials in them, is counted one of important parameters in area of this type of civil engineering projects. In this study, it is tried to examine the effect of different materials quality on stability of embankment dams by applying computer modeling using from GeoStudio, finite element software.

European Journal of Engineering and Technology Research. 9, 3 (Jun. 2024, 2024

This is a methodology testing study that uses the case history of Vale Mining's Brumadinho Dam disaster and data from the Barcelona investigation report. This study aims to compare the results of two constitutive models for tailings: CASM and NorSand, running in the finite element program Plaxis 2D. The same senior authors carried out a previous study on four tailings dams and adopted the NorSand model and parameters obtained from piezocone and laboratory tests. Therefore, this paper aims to check if the same methodology would predict the Brumadinho Dam failure. The results show that both methods can predict Brumadinho failure, and the triggering mechanism suggested in the Barcelona report seems to be the cause of failure.