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General report
Geotechnical problems of dikes (TC 201) and dams (TC 210)
Rapport général
Problèmes géotechniques dans les digues (TC 201) et barrages (TC 210)
Xu Z.
China Institute of Water Resources & Hydropower Research, State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water
Cycle in River Basin
ABSTRACT: Among the papers submitted to the 18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
(ICSMGE 2013), 11 papers are catalogued in the field of dike and dam, with 4 paper on dike and 5 papers on dam. By reviewing the
submitted papers and recent development in related field, the general report for the joint session of TC201 (dike) and TC210 (dam) of
ISSMGE Conference (Paris 2013) was presented. Besides the brief comments on the submitted papers, the general report discussed
some selected geotechnical issues of dikes and dams. For dikes, the discussion is mainly focus on overtopping flow erosion, internal
seepage instability and bank collapse. For dams, some key technologies for building high rockfill dam were presented, which includ
properties of construction materials, foundation treatment, dam deformation control and hydraulic fracture of earth core.
RÉSUMÉ : Parmi les articles présentés au 18
e
Congrès International de Mécanique des Sols et de la Géotechnique (CIMSG 2013), 11
articles sont catalogués dans le domaine des digues et barrages, avec 4 articles sur les digues et 5 sur les barrages. En passant en revue
les articles présentés ainsi que les développements récents dans le domaine, le rapport général de la session conjointe des TC201
(digues) et TC210 (barrages) du congrès de la SIMSG (Paris 2013) a été présenté. En plus des brefs commentaires sur les articles
présentés, le rapport général a examiné certains problèmes géotechniques des digues et des barrages. Pour les digues, la discussion est
principalement ciblée sur l'érosion due au débordement, sur l'instabilité de l’écoulement interne et sur l’effondrement des rives. Pour
les barrages, certaines technologies clés pour la construction de grands barrages en enrochement ont été présentées, qui incluent les
propriétés des matériaux de construction, le traitement des fondations, le contrôle de la déformation du barrage et la fracturation
hydraulique du noyau en terre.
KEYWORDS: dike, dam, gentechnical problems, general report
1 INTRODUCTION
Dike is a kind of very important structural approaches to flood
management of rivers and lakes, and also to defense high tide
alone seashores. To use dikes to protect land from annual floods
date back centuries and in some places more than 2,000 years
ago. Construction of a dike requires that it is high enough to
exclude extreme flood and to avoid overtopping failure.
Besides, as most of the dikes were constructed by earth
materials and were normally found on natural riverbank, a
common problem is seepage through the dike and foundation.
The internal erosion by unfavorable seepage could lead to loss
of dike or foundation materials and further lead to dike collapse
and overtopping.
Rockfill dam is one of the most widely accepted and rapidly
developed dam types in dam engineering. Rockfill dams in early
stage were constructed by dumped rocks and face slabs. From
1920s to 1960s, with the progress of soil mechanics, earth core
rockfill dam (ECRD) was well developed. The built dam height
reached to 150m. After 1960s, with the application of vibrating
roller and the technique of thin layer compaction, concrete faced
rockfill dam (CFRD) was rapidly developed. Many high CFRD
were constructed all over the world. At the same time, ECRD
was further developed with the improvement of construction
methods and equipment. At present, the dam height of CFRD
has reached to 200m, while the height of ECRD has reached to
300m. CFRD and ECRD have become the main representative
types of modern rockfill dam.
Dikes and dams are the important infrastructures in modern
society. It is also an important field of the application of modern
soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering. In conference
ISSMGE 2013, there are 11 papers concerning dike and dam,
which 5 paper on dikes and 6 papers on dams. For the papers on
dikes, 2 papers are about seepage failure of dikes, with one
paper for internal erosion and another paper for hydraulic
failure; one paper is about settlement prediction; one paper for
strength assessment of dike foundation material; one paper is
about soil reinforcement of costal geotechnical engineering. For
the papers on dam, two papers are about concrete faced rockfill
dam, with one paper for numerical analysis and another paper
for deformation control; two paper are about dam seepage, with
one paper for the design of filter material and another paper for
suffusion of loess material; one paper is about stability of earth
dam; one paper is about the failure of tailing dam.
2 GEOTECHNICAL PROBLEMS OF DIKES
For dikes of flood defense, statistic analyses show that
overtopping and internal erosion are the most common modes
of dike failure. Besides, bank collapse is also one of the
common threatens to the safety of dikes. All of these failure
modes are the concern of geotechnical engineers in dike
engineering.
