Preface

Zhongzhi Fu, Erich Bauer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingForeword/postscriptpeer-review

Abstract

Dams and reservoirs are significant parts of the infrastructure in many countries, because of their comprehensive functions of flood control, irrigation, power generation, environmental protection, and recreation. Deficiently constructed dams are sensitive to structural damages, which may lead to leakage and erosion, dam breaches, and environmental disasters. To ensure safe operation and avoid large costs to repair deficient dams, great efforts should be exercised in site investigation, designing, analysis, construction, and maintenance of the dam building.
In the past decades, many high dams have been successfully constructed worldwide. These active engineering practices could benefit greatly from advancements in construction technologies and enhanced designing theories. The engineering praxis, of course, also provides sufficient cases to summarize experiences and lessons learned about the long-term behavior of dams, and to evaluate the reasonability and reliability of designing theories, including those for deformation and stability analyses under different loading conditions, which can roughly be divided into static and dynamic loads, thermal, and hydro-chemical weathering.
This book presents recent research in both engineering practice and analytical methods in eight chapters. Each chapter contains valuable studies on specified areas of dam engineering. Chapter 1 presents properties of clay–gravel mixtures and the use of such gap-graded materials in four famous high rockfill dams in western China. Chapter 2 reports a case study on heightening of an existing embankment dam from 63.4 m (height) to 98.1 m using a special impermeable protection system. Chapter 3 explains the theory of the space-time finite element method and its application in studying the responses of a concrete dam-reservoir system to earthquake loading. Chapter 4 presents a novel hypoplastic constitutive model for moisture-sensitive, coarse-grained rockfill materials based on the concept of degradation of the solid hardness. Chapter 5, within the framework of critical state theory, discusses a state-dependent elastoplastic constitutive model for rockfill materials, which is especially useful in predicting the complex deformation behavior of rockfill dams. Chapter 6 focuses on the efficient probabilistic analyses of embankment dams, and introduces a practical framework in such a way that a first assessment stage using random variables (RV) for the soil variability is followed by a second assessment stage using random fields (RF). Chapter 7 is also about the probabilistic analyses of embankment dams, and the authors demonstrate the use of some well-known analytical methods in performing deterministic and probabilistic slope stability analysis for embankment dams. Chapter 8 provides a comprehensive review of recent research progress in the numerical modeling of the breach process of earth-rock dams.
We hope that this book provides an opportunity for readers working in relevant areas to utilize recent practical experiences and scientific findings.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDam Engineering - Recent Advances in Design and Analysis
PublisherIntechOpen
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Cite this