Up to now, the BAUER Trench Cutter Cut-Off Wall (COW) technology has been developed for more than 20 years for use on large dams. The special task of a COW is to mitigate seepage and therefore COW's are utilized either on dam rehabilitation projects or on new dams as well. Seepage mitigation, for the long-term stability and the safety of dykes and dams, is a major issue to the designers. Cut-of...

A hybrid meta-heuristic optimization method is introduced to efficiently find the optimal shape of concrete gravity dams including dam-water-foundation rock interaction subjected to earthquake loading. The hybrid meta-heuristic optimization method is based on a hybrid of gravitational search algorithm (GSA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), which is called GSA-PSO. The operation of GSA-PSO...

Many permanent spillway tunnels of high earth-rock dams are rebuilt from their diversion tunnels. Scour problem is focused because of their high water head and velocity. Energy Approach is a new method to Estimating Scour and is used here to estimate the depth of scour downstream of 1 spillway tunnel of Zipingpu Project. The method is illustrated working fine by comparing its results with data ...

The report illustrates the results of the activities carried out by the European Working Group. Four subjects were selected by the Group: "Regulatory Rules and/or Normal Practice" adopted in different Countries; "Analysis of Measurement Data", referring to recent relevant studies; "Numerical Modelling" to compute uplift pressures; "Clearing Of Drainage Systems". As far as regulatory rules are c...