Open AccessDam Safety: Use of Instrumentation in Dams
Author(s) -
Nasrat Adamo,
Nadhir AlAnsari,
Varoujan K. Sissakian,
Jan Laue,
Sven Knutsson
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of earth sciences and geotechnical engineering
Language(s) - English
DOI - 10.47260/jesge/1115
Subject(s) - instrumentation (computer programming) , foundation (evidence) , data collection , work (physics) , safety monitoring , engineering , data logger , environmental science , civil engineering , forensic engineering , computer science , mechanical engineering , statistics , mathematics , microbiology and biotechnology , archaeology , biology , history , operating system
Dam safety concerns do not stop at site selection, or the design and constructionstages of a dam, but continue throughout its whole life. Seeing to safety issues ofany dam is done by following up its behavior through visual observationsupplemented and enriched by data collection from all the devices installed on orimplanted in a dam to follow its reactions to the forces and conditions in action.Analysis of the accumulated data will show the safety level and the need or,otherwise, of any remedial works. Using measuring devices to quantifying seepageconditions at any dam and correlating this with water levels’ fluctuations is the firstmain issue that concerns dam safety. Added to this, measurement of pore water andtotal earth pressure in earthfill dams, temperature measurements in concrete dams,uplift and displacement measurements, and measurements of stresses and strainscan all give good pictures of what is happening inside the dam and/or its foundationin both types of dams. In the following work, a summary of typical instrumentationsand monitoring used in evaluating causes of common problems is given. Moreover,requirements for good instrumentation program are explained and the methods ofdata collection, whether manual, or use of stand-alone loggers and real-timemonitoring networks are touched upon. The various devices in current use aredescribed in more details. Actual examples of monitoring systems in existing damsare presented to show the value and importance of these systems to the safety ofthese dams.