Literature report on failures and its causes of dams :

Causes:
Introduction
Dams are water storage, control or diversion structures that impound water upstream in
reservoirs. Their role is not limited to the storage of water but the management, interms of
managing the time and quantity of the releases, plays a vital role as well. The dams must
be designed, built, and operated so that they make a positive contribution to socio–
economic development, while having minimal impact on the environment. The acceleration
of economic growth is not possible without the generation of power and availability of
water for agriculture as well as for domestic consumption. Current estimates suggest that
nearly 30 – 40% of irrigated land worldwide now relies on dams and that dams generate
19% of the world's electricity.
A dam failure is simply an uncontrolled release of water from a reservoir through
a dam because of structural failures or deficiencies in the dam. Dam failures can range from
fairly minor to catastrophic, and can possibly harm human life and property downstream from
the failure.
Dam failures can be extremely harmful, especially because dams are considered "installations
containing dangerous forces" under International Humanitarian law. This is because of the
immense destruction that can occur with a dam breach. Throughout history, a large number of
dam failures have caused immense property damage when floodwaters destroy infrastructure.
In addition, ecosystems and habitats are destroyed as a result of waters flooding them. Along
with this, dam failures over the years have taken thousands of lives. The older that dams get,
the more potential exists for catastrophic dam failures.

Causes of dam failures:

There are four major causes of dam failures, they include

 Overtopping: These failures occur as a result of poor spillway design, leading to a

reservoir filling too high with water, dam will fail if the spillway capacity is too small
and flood waters raise high enough to flow over the top of the dam for a considerable

fig1:
 amount of time especially in times of heavy rainfall. Other causes of this type of failure
include settling of the crest of the dam or spillway blockage. Due to poor construction
of spillways, It is clear that the failure of the spillway structure and the embankment of
 the dam are mainly due to seepage of water. Thus, to avoid and prevent any seepage of
water below the spillway structure that may occur, vertical moisture barriers can be
used to a satisfactory depth at different locations below the concrete slab. Also in order
to control the escaping of fine particles, a rock toe drain to be provided which consists
of filter and rock. The purpose of the filter and drain is to provide a way for seepage to
exit the dam without causing excessive erosion of the dam material.

 Foundation defects /Piping and seepage failures: These failures occur as a result of
settling in the foundation of the dam, instability of slopes surrounding the dam, uplift
pressures, and seepage around the foundation. All of these failures result in structural
instability and potential dam failure.These failures occur as a result of internal erosion
caused by seepage and erosion along hydraulic structures such as the spillways. As well,
erosion as a result of animal burrows and cracks in the dam structure contribute to these
failures.
 Water penetrating through the dam’s interior body or its foundation might
progressively erode soil from the embankment or its foundation leading to the
failure of the dam. Piping failure is defined as a failure mode caused by water
penetrating through the dam’s body, carrying with it small particles of dam material,
continuously widening the gap. If the initial piping can be detected before it reaches
the critical condition, remedy might be possible. Penetration of water in the dam
body can cause slope failure. To prevent this type of failure, appropriate
instrumentation is needed to estimate the rate of infiltration within an embankment.
 Seepage failure (Figure 1) or foundation failure occurs due to the saturation of the
foundation material leading to either washout of the material or a weakening of the
rock towards a sliding failure. The flow of water through a pervious foundation
produces seepage forces as a result of the friction between the percolating water and
the walls of the pores of the soil through which it flows. Figure 2,shows how water
flows through the pervious foundation of a dam.

 As revealed by the structural damage of concrete dams (e.g. Hsinfengkiang, Koyna,

Sefid-Rud) arising in recent earthquakes, cracking damage would probably occur
inside concrete dams when subjected to designed level of ground motions or
earthquake movement. This is due to the low tensile resistance of concrete .
Research on the cracking damage process and failure modes of concrete gravity
dams subjected to strong earthquakes is crucial to a reasonable assessment of the
seismic safety of dams.
fig2: collapse due to earthquake

Fig3: failure due to piping and seeping

Other dam failures arise as a result of other miscellaneous causes. Many dam failures are
also secondary results of other natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, extreme
storms, or heavy snowmelt. Other causes include equipment malfunction, structural
damage, and sabotage

Additional literature:
Here below are some of the dam failures and their causes

Causes of Dam failure:

Major causes of dam failure are overtopping, sliding, spillway failure etc. A dam may
fail because of low standard materials or techniques used. Gleno Dam in Italy is example which
failed due to sub-standard material. Spillway design error is the other probability of dam
failure. Geotechnical instability caused by changes to water levels during filling or poor
surveying. Malpasset dam in France is example of poor geotechnical investigation.
Vajont Dam in Italy is unique type of dam failure because it did not collapse and is still
standing but it appeared to be fatal for neighbors killing 2000 people. Actually the geotechnical
engineers didn’t investigated the vicinity so a large volume of rock felled in dam and displacing
and overtopping the water. Shakidor dam in Pasni Pakistan failed because of extreme inflow.
Internal erosion or pipping also causes failure especially in earthen dams. Teton Dam is an
example of piping failure.

Case Studies of Dam failure:

1 Machhu Dam (India-1979):

 Failed on August 11, 1979.

 The Machchu-2 dam, situated on the Machhu River.
 The failure was caused by excessive rain and massive flooding leading to the
disintegration of the earthen walls of the four kilometer long Machchu II dam.
 The spillway capacity provided for 5663 m³/s. The actual observed flow following the
intense rainfall reached 16307 m³/s, thrice what the dam was designed for, resulting in
its collapse.
 During reconstruction of the dam the capacity of the spillway was increased by 4 times
and fixed at about 21,000 m³/s
 More than 2000 people died.

2 St. Francis Dam (USA-1928)

 It was a curved concrete gravity dam, built to create a large regulating and
storage reservoir for the city of Los Angeles, California.
 The dam was designed and built between 1924 and 1926 by the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power,
 Water began to fill the reservoir on March 12, 1926. It rose steadily and rather
uneventfully, although several temperature and contraction cracks did appear in the
dam and a minor amount of seepage began to flow from under the abutments.
 At 11:57pm on March 12, 1928, the dam catastrophically failed, and the
resulting flood took the lives of as many as 400 people.
 The failure is because of foundation failure according to an
investigation committee.
 Fig 1. St. Francis Dam after failure

3 Malpasset Dam (France-1959):

 The Malpasset Dam was an arch dam on the Reyran River,
 The dam was a doubly curved equal angle arch type with variable radius. It was built
to supply drinking and irrigation water for the region.
 Construction began in April 1952 and was finished in 1954.
 It collapsed on December 2, 1959, killing 423 people in the resulting flooThe dam was
breached at 21:13. The entire wall collapsed with only a few blocks remaining on the
right bank. A tectonic fault was later found as the most likely cause of the disaster.
 Other factors contributed as well; the water pressure was aimed diagonally towards the
dam wall, and was not found initially.

4 Gleno Dam (Italy-1923)

 The Gleno Dam was a multiple-arch dam on the Gleno River.
 The dam was constructed between 1916 and 1923 with the purpose of
producing hydroelectric power.
 A portion of the dam failed and burst 40 days after its reservoir was full, on December
1, 1923, killing at least 356 people.
 The dam was originally permitted as a gravity dam with a slight curvature, but was
changed to a multiple arch dam by the client to save money.
 The concrete in the arches was of a poor quality
 Additionally, the concrete was believed to not be completely cured when the reservoir
was filling.

Fig 2. Malpasset Dam after failure

Fig 3. Upstream side of failed Gleno Dam

5 Shakidor Dam (Pakistan-2005)

 It was a small dam located near Pasni in Balochistan.

 It was constructed in 2003 to provide irrigation for nearby farms.
 On February 10, 2005, the dam burst due to heavy flooding caused by excessive rainfall,
resulting in the deaths of around 70