Course content

Planning and design of dams in the context of hydropower development. The course covers the basics in dam engineering for civil engineers, including concrete and embankment dams, soil mechanics for dams, concrete for dams and dam safety.

Learning outcome

The course is offered in English to the students in the first year of the MSc programme Hydropower Development and third or fourth year of the siv.ing. studies in Civil and Environmental Engineering. The course covers the basic in dam engineering for civil engineers, including planning and design of concrete and embankment dams, soil mechanics for dams and concrete technology for dams. The students shall know the basic design and construction principles for various types of dams and be able to select type of dam, pre-design and estimate the costs for a dam site after completion of the course.

Knowledge

The students shall have knowledge about:

• Type of dams and their characteristics
• How dam sites are selected and evaluated
• Basics of soil mechanics of importance for dams: settlement, seepage and stress evaluation, stability of slopes.
• Basics of concrete property and dam concrete challenges
• How to identify and quantify different loads on dams
• Failure mechanism of different dam types
• How to design filter and slope protection of embankment dams
• Criteria and principles of dam seepage and stability analysis
• The importance of monitoring for dam safety.
• How to classify dams based on impacts of possible dam failure
• The importance of dam safety inspection, supervision and emergency action planning.

Skill

Students will be able to:

• Participate in the selection of feasible dam site and type of dam for a hydropower project
• Calculate pore pressure, vertical and horizontal principal stress,
• Calculate settlement, time rate of consolidation of dams and dam foundation or soil layers.
• Carry out basic seepage analysis of dams and dam foundations
• Carry out basic stability analysis of dams and slopes.
• Identify failure mechanism
• Design filter and slope protection of embankment dams
• Classify dams given relevant information
• Participate in dam safety inspection and supervision.

General competence

The students shall know the basic design and construction principles for various types of dams and be able to select type of dam and predesign and estimate the costs for a dam site.

Learning methods and activities

The lecturers come from the university and the hydropower industry, all with international experience. All lectures and exercises are given in English.

The course will be carried out as a guided self study if the number of students register to the course is five or less.

Compulsory assignments

• Exercises

Specific conditions

Recommended previous knowledge

Admission to the HPD MSc programme, admission to Civil and Environmental Engineering or similar. The course is a prerequisite for TVM5132 Prefeasibility Study in Hydropower Development.

Required previous knowledge

Basic understanding of Fluid mechanics and Structural engineering.

Course materials

"Hydraulic Structures" by P. Novak et al. (selected chapters). From the series "Hydropower Development", volume No.10 Rockfill Dams. Fell et al., 2014, Geotechnical Engineering of dams (Selected chapters) and supplementary lecture notes (English).