Publications related to Embankment dam

Contribution of the Hydraulic Laboratories of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology to Dam Safety

Giovanni De Cesare, Azin Amini, Samuel Luke Vorlet

Bien que la construction de barrages en général et l’hydraulique des barrages en particulier soient des domaines techniques très développés, le potentiel de risque associé aux barrages justifie dans la plupart des cas la vérification et l’optimisation de l ...

2023

Swiss dams: Overview of historical development

Anton Schleiss

With more than 220 large dams in operation, compared to its surface of some 41ʹ000 km2, Switzerland has a very large fleet. They were erected to meet various economic and protection needs. Their main assignments concern the storage of water for later use, ...

CRC Press/Balkema2023

The importance of young professionals for dam engineering in Switzerland

Samuel Luke Vorlet, Valentina Favero

In Switzerland, hydropower is the main energy source and contributes to about 58.3% of the total production. The 2050 energy strategy aims to increase this share in the coming decades. This increase is a challenge for hydropower plants. The maintenance and ...

CRC Press/Balkema2023

Dynamic behavior of exposed geomembrane systems in pressure waterways

Giovanni De Cesare, Samuel Luke Vorlet, Roberto Proença Seixas

Geomembrane systems have been used in dams and reservoirs as rehabilitation technology since several decades and are now used worldwide. They act as impervious layer to prevent and mitigate water leakage and damage to structures. They meet the needs of man ...

CRC Press/Balkema2023

Exploring the efficacy of reservoir fine sediment management measures through numerical simulations

Giovanni De Cesare, Azin Amini, Samuel Luke Vorlet, Montana Marshall

Reservoir sedimentation is one of the main challenges in the sustainable operation of large reservoirs because it causes volume loss, affecting hydropower production capacity, dam safety, and flood management. To ensure the sustainability of deep reservoir ...

CRC Press/Balkema2023

Experimental investigations on plunge pool protection measures for Ilarion Dam in Greece

Anton Schleiss, Giovanni De Cesare, Azin Amini, Romain Nathan Hippolyte Merlin Van Mol

Ilarion Dam is a 130 m high earthfill dam at Aliakmon River in northern Greece. The dam was commissioned in 2010. It has two spillway tunnels with ski jumps at the outlets. The two spillways are designed to release a total discharge of 5'500 m3/s during th ...

2022

Plunging Circular Jets: Experimental Characterization of Dynamic Pressures Near the Stagnation Zone

Giovanni De Cesare, Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Gregoire Aurelien Marie Jamet

Spillways are a requirement for dams’ safety, mainly preventing overtopping during floods. A common spillway solution involves plunging jets, which dissipate a considerable flow energy in the plunge pool. Energy dissipation has to occur in a controlled man ...

2022

Untersuchung der ökomorphologischen Wirksamkeit von Sedimentzugaben unterhalb von Talsperren [Assessment of the eco-morphological effectiveness of sediment augmentation downstream of dams]

Giovanni De Cesare, Christian Mörtl

The regulation of discharge and the retention of sediments in reservoirs disturb the natural water dynamics in residual flow stretches below reservoirs. However, a dynamic river morphology as well as near-natural hydrological hydrographs are fundamental ...

ETH2021

Heightening of Very High Gravity Dams: The Case Study of the Grande Dixence

Giovanni De Cesare, Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Basile Clerc

Heightening very high gravity dams is one of the solutions considered as part of the energy transition and to mitigate the effects of climate change. The paper presents a stepwise approach to assess the potential for dam heightening and its impact on the h ...

Springer, Cham2020

Reservoir Level Rise under Extreme Driftwood Blockage at Ogee Crest

Giovanni De Cesare, Michael Pfister, Loïc Bénet

Dams are civil structures essential to modern civilization. However, they can be a threat if not properly designed and operated. A particular risk that potentially can lead to dam failure is the blocking of the spillway inlet with driftwood or debris. This ...

2021

Hybrid asynchronous SEM/FEM co-simulation for seismic nonlinear analysis of concrete gravity dams

Nicolas Richart, Michael Ludovic Brun

The aim of this work is to take full advantage of Spectral Element (SE) and Finite Element (FE) codes by setting up a SEM/FEM co-simulation strategy for soil structure interaction problems, involving a SE code to generate and propagate elastic waves in the ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2021

Effect of 30-Degree Sloping Smooth and Stepped Chute Approach Flow on the Performance of a Classical Stilling Basin

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, José Pedro Gamito de Saldanha Calado Matos, Ivan Stojnic

Advances in dam construction techniques have significantly increased the number of stepped spillways implemented worldwide. Although stepped chutes provide enhanced energy dissipation along the chute, as compared to smooth chutes, an adequate energy dissip ...

2020

Integrating the Finite Element Method with a Data-Driven Approach for Dam Displacement Prediction

Zhenzhu Meng, Yating Hu, Chenfei Shao

Both numerical simulations and data-driven methods have been applied in dam's displacement modeling. For monitored displacement data-driven methods, the physical mechanism and structural correlations were rarely discussed. In order to take the spatial and ...

2020

Numerical Simulations of an Innovative Water Stirring Device for Fine Sediment Release: The Case Study of the Future Trift Reservoir

Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Azin Amini, Anass Chraibi

Reservoir sedimentation and consequently lack of storage volume and perturbation of the operation of intakes and bottom outlet is a key challenge affecting both hydropower production as well as dam safety and flood management. In the framework of a peer-re ...

Springer2020

Stilling Basin Performance Downstream of Stepped Spillways

Ivan Stojnic

Advances in dam construction techniques have significantly increased the number of implemented stepped spillways worldwide. A key hydraulic feature of a stepped chute, compared to a smooth chute, is the enhanced energy dissipation resulting in a reduced re ...

EPFL2020

Seismic Behavior of Pine Flat Concrete Gravity Dam Using Microplane Damage-Plasticity Model

Giovanni De Cesare, Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Samuel Luke Vorlet

The response of concrete gravity dams under seismic loads is a major concern of dam safety assessment in earthquake-prone areas. This study focuses on the seismic analysis of the tallest non-overflow monolith of Pine Flat Dam. The paper presents results of ...

Springer, Cham2020

A Data-Driven Approach Based on Multivariate Copulas for Quantitative Risk Assessment of Concrete Dam

Zhenzhu Meng, Yating Hu, Chenfei Shao

Risk assessment of dam's running status is an important part of dam management. A data-driven method based on monitored displacement data has been applied in risk assessment, owing to its easy operation and real-time analysis. However, previous data-driven ...

2019

Hydraulic Reconstruction of the 1818 Gietro Glacial Lake Outburst Flood

Christophe Ancey, Tomás Alfredo Trewhela Palacios, Eric Bardou, Martin Funk

In the spring of 1818, ice avalanches from the Gietro Glacier created an ice dam, which in turn formed a glacial lake in the Drance Valley (Canton of Valais, Switzerland). Today, its maximum volume is estimated to have been 25x10(6) m(3). Cantonal authorit ...

2019

The Hydropower Europe forum devoted to the development of hydropower in the next decades

Anton Schleiss

HYDROPOWER-EUROPE is a project selected by European Commission after the call H2020 LC-SC3-CC-4-2018, whose the scope is “bringing together stakeholders of the hydropower sector in a forum” to develop a roadmap of research and innovation for new hydropower ...

2019

Blockage of driftwood and resulting head increase upstream of an ogee spillway with piers

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, José Pedro Gamito de Saldanha Calado Matos, Paloma Furlan

Accumulations of floating debris in reservoirs can have negative impacts on the safe operation of a dam. Thus, adequate spillway design in view of driftwood is of paramount importance. Herein, investigation of driftwood blockage with a reservoir flow appro ...

Canadian Dam Association2019