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Longtan Dam – Dam safety and production losses under dynamic load

Berggren, Lars LU and Wallmann, Ludvig LU (2012) In LUTVDG/TVBB VBR920 20121
Division of Fire Safety Engineering
Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
Abstract
The energy demand in China is steadily growing and large hydropower dams become more and more common. A major dam failure could cause large environmental, economic and social effects, and work concerning safety in dams is therefore essential in order to keep the utilization of hydropower at as low risk level as possible. This master thesis analyzed Longtan Dam under static and dynamic conditions with the help of a two-dimensional numerical model, built in the commercial software UDEC. Further, the production losses during an earthquake were investigated. The results showed that Longtan Dam were rather unsafe under seismic activity. When experiencing earthquake waves with amplitude above 0.4 m/s2, the reservoir water head had to be lowered... (More)
The energy demand in China is steadily growing and large hydropower dams become more and more common. A major dam failure could cause large environmental, economic and social effects, and work concerning safety in dams is therefore essential in order to keep the utilization of hydropower at as low risk level as possible. This master thesis analyzed Longtan Dam under static and dynamic conditions with the help of a two-dimensional numerical model, built in the commercial software UDEC. Further, the production losses during an earthquake were investigated. The results showed that Longtan Dam were rather unsafe under seismic activity. When experiencing earthquake waves with amplitude above 0.4 m/s2, the reservoir water head had to be lowered significantly in order to keep the safety at a constant level, i.e. if the initial factor of safety was to be kept at a constant value. The most critical part of the dam was the concrete-rock interface, with sliding as the most probable failure mode; a result achieved from both stability analyses by hand and stress simulations in UDEC. In means of losses in production, the results showed that these could be quite high as a consequence of the lowered reservoir water level. The most important aspect of this study were however not the achieved result, but rather the method of investigating the effects of earthquakes in a dam. Hopefully, the conclusions and recommendations could work as help and guidance for future studies and work concerning safety in hydropower dams. (Less)
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author
Berggren, Lars LU and Wallmann, Ludvig LU
supervisor
organization
course
VBR920 20121
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Dam failure, Dynamic load, Factor of safety, High concrete dam, Longtan Dam, Static load, UDEC.
publication/series
LUTVDG/TVBB
report number
5386
ISSN
1402-3504
language
English
id
3917786
date added to LUP
2013-08-01 13:45:19
date last changed
2014-03-10 10:40:45
@misc{3917786,
  abstract     = {{The energy demand in China is steadily growing and large hydropower dams become more and more common. A major dam failure could cause large environmental, economic and social effects, and work concerning safety in dams is therefore essential in order to keep the utilization of hydropower at as low risk level as possible. This master thesis analyzed Longtan Dam under static and dynamic conditions with the help of a two-dimensional numerical model, built in the commercial software UDEC. Further, the production losses during an earthquake were investigated. The results showed that Longtan Dam were rather unsafe under seismic activity. When experiencing earthquake waves with amplitude above 0.4 m/s2, the reservoir water head had to be lowered significantly in order to keep the safety at a constant level, i.e. if the initial factor of safety was to be kept at a constant value. The most critical part of the dam was the concrete-rock interface, with sliding as the most probable failure mode; a result achieved from both stability analyses by hand and stress simulations in UDEC. In means of losses in production, the results showed that these could be quite high as a consequence of the lowered reservoir water level. The most important aspect of this study were however not the achieved result, but rather the method of investigating the effects of earthquakes in a dam. Hopefully, the conclusions and recommendations could work as help and guidance for future studies and work concerning safety in hydropower dams.}},
  author       = {{Berggren, Lars and Wallmann, Ludvig}},
  issn         = {{1402-3504}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  series       = {{LUTVDG/TVBB}},
  title        = {{Longtan Dam – Dam safety and production losses under dynamic load}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}