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SANCOLD Conference 2017: Material Exploitation Constraints Dictate Embankment Design

By M Blaeser, D Cameron-Ellis. ARQ Dams (Pty) Ltd, Pretoria, South Africa.

One of the basic objective of the design of embankment dams is to utilise the materials available to produce a functional structure at the minimum total cost. To achieve this, the dam should be configured for optimal use of the materials available. Where a variety of soils are readily available, a zoned embankment will often represent the most efficient solution, generally because it can take advantage of the availability of different materials by placing them in various zones so that their best properties are used most beneficially, and their poorer properties mitigated. This paper presents a dam embankment/material optimisation that identified a zoned earthfill/soft rockfill embankment as the optimal solution, and discusses the advantages of this configuration for this specific location.