Effects of Increasing the Base on Concrete Dam Stability

The concrete dam is one of the most important hydraulic infrastructures which play a vital role in providing a wide range of water services and helps prevent many potential disasters such as floods. The concrete dam subjected to many kinds of static and hydrodynamic forces which almost needs taking into account of design under different circumstances to satisfy the safety requirements. The shape of dam is pertinent to the stability of dam regarding the major forces and stresses. One of the most common ways which is necessary to solve the problems in design due to the cases of unsafely for any mode of failures is to add mass to the dam upstream face. In this work, a parametric study is made to investigate the effects of the increase in the base of dam on the principal and shear stresses developed in the dam. In all cases, all the relevant factors of safety are satisfied. The stability analysis for all possible modes of failures is carried out to check the performance of the initial section of dam due several loading conditions. Parameters of importance are studied, discussed and conclusions are drawn.