Papers
Papers
Here you can search for and access individually, all ANCOLD papers that have been published as part of a conference proceedings and deposited to the National Library.
For authors wishing to reference ANCOLD papers, the following applies to papers published post the cessation of the ANCOLD Bulletin.
The template is as follows:
Author surname, author initials, year of publication, title, publisher, place. Add start and finish pages.
Example:
Herweynen R, Campbell J, and Moeini M (2017) Turkey’s Nest Dam on Top of a Waste Rock Dump – An Innovative Solution for the Kidston Pumped Storage Project. In Proceedings of the 2017 ANCOLD (Australian National Committee on Large Dams) Conference. ANCOLD, Hobart, Australia, pp. 5-16.
Where we have previously lodged proceedings with the National Library that do not have continuous page numbers through from the first paper to the last paper, people wishing to reference the papers will have to leave out the page numbers.
From 2021 onwards the individual papers accessed via the website will show the continuous page numbers.
A CD can be purchased containing ANCOLD Bulletins from 1961 to 2001 on the OTHER PUBLICATIONS page.
Use the search below using keywords, year or author.
Please add to your shopping cart to purchase and you will receive a link to download.
Members receive papers complimentary. ANCOLD members please log in and add the required papers to you shopping cart and once you click ‘Place Order’ the cost will show as $0 and you will receive the link to the paper.
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$15.00
Papers
2019 – Hydrophilic Waterstops in Dam Engineering
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Sam Taubert, Peter Buchanan, Steven Fox
Hydrophilic waterstops have been used in in-situ concrete for convenience, cost savings and in locations where installing an alternative form of waterstop has not been practical. The waterstop is often preferred to traditional PVC waterstops given its simplified construction methodology whilst still providing seals of up to 50 m of head. The principle of the performance of the waterstop is that it is capable of expanding upon absorption of water to seal the joint, making it ideal for gap variation. However, recent experience has indicated that this ability to expand can generate sufficient forces to generate localised failure of concrete including cracking, spalling, and exposure of reinforcement and ultimately failure of joints.
This paper reviews examples of poor detailing of hydrophilic water stop installation, the conditions leading to the failure of the concrete, how these compare to the waterstop manufacturers installation recommendations and discusses the design approach to using hydrophilic waterstops and its shortcomings in dam spillway engineering.
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$15.00
2019 Papers
2019 – Statistical Analysis of Potential Failure Modes Related to Embankment Dams in Vietnam
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Ho Sy Tam, Nguyen Canh Thai, Pham Thi Hong Nga
Vietnam has many embankment dams to supply water to the agricultural sector. Most of these dams were built between 1970 and 2000 but have degraded significantly since their construction due to a number of different reasons. Identifying the main potential failure modes for these dams aims to improve their dam safety management systems as well as help to target dam safety rehabilitation works. The research was conducted by analysing 207 Dam Safety Reports and Feasibility Studies published by the Vietnamese Ministry for Agricultural and Rural Development between 2017 and 2019. The priority level of rehabilitation required to these dams was assessed by analysing whether overtopping, seepage and slope stability related potential failure modes were likely to occur. The results revealed the main potential failure modes of embankment dams in Vietnam and the possible reasons for these are discussed. The approaches to rehabilitate the dams that are outlined in the Feasibility Studies were also analysed and are discussed in general terms. The results provide valuable insight into commonly encountered dam safety issues with embankment dams in Vietnam.
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2019 Papers
2019 – The Long-Term Performance of Seepage Improvement Works at New Zealand Dams and Canals
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Don Tate
Failure modes of seepage and internal erosion have been identified as one of the key issues for the
ongoing safety of dams and canals in New Zealand. Accordingly, many dams and canals have had
improvement works carried out to mitigate this issue. This paper examines the long-term performance of these measures including three case studies. It is concluded that the performance of these measures has been variable, but ongoing monitoring and periodic review has identified deterioration in performance. There are a number of technical areas where uncertainties on long-term performance may still remain, such as geotextiles in important filter functions and waterstops of various types.
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2019 Papers
2019 – TSF Design and the Inclusion of Recovery Controls for the Event of a Tailings Dam Failure
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John Plunkett, Jarrad Coffey
This paper discusses the current regulatory requirements and guidelines, which address to varying degrees the need for recovery controls and the engagement of Owners with Impacted Communities (ICs) within a Dam Safety Emergency Response Plan. The planning and application of appropriate recovery controls, which are applicable from the moment of failure, help to build resilience and reduce the ultimate consequence of TSF failure. The application of such controls, developed with close engagement with impacted communities has a strong precedent, being recommended as a result of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) review of good practice for emergency preparedness (Emery, 2005).
This paper presents a simple method to assess various recovery controls, with risk minimisation as its basis, and the use of existing risk assessment techniques such as bow-tie diagrams or the inclusion of recovery controls to other qualitative assessment methods. This will be illustrated through application to some relevant historical TSF failures.
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2019 Papers
2019 – Tailings Storage Failures: Impact on the industry, design, operation and people
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Ryan Singh, Jiri Herza, Emily Taylor, William Kettle
As predicted by Powel (2000) claims for professional negligence are very common and their frequency is increasing due to the increasing demand for professionals’ services, specialisation, higher standards, intolerance of poor performance by societies and the increasing litigious nature of business.
The increasing expectations of the society are reflected in the changing attitude of the authorities and courts towards professionals when things go wrong. The changing attitude is fuelled by the unprecedented media coverage of failures of structures with human and environmental losses. This is particularly relevant to the tailings industry, which is marked by the recent dam failures in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, Australia and India.
The far reaching expectations for duty of care of professionals has been strikingly illustrated from the fallouts from recent major and widely publicised TSF failures such as Mt Polley (three consultant engineers accused of unprofessional conduct), the 2015 Samarco failure (22 individuals charged with various criminal offences including homicide) and the recent Brumadinho failure (charges of false representation have also been brought against the consultant engineers).
This paper examines the responsibilities and duties of engineers operating in the tailings industry with respect to the professionals’ duty of care and the consequences of breaching those responsibilities and duties. This paper also discusses the potential conflicting interests of consulting engineers and proposes that engineers are, in the vast majority, ill-prepared for navigating the changing waters of professional negligence.
The authors of this paper believe that a better understanding of the professional duty of care could reduce the number of claims for professional negligence. As a corollary, the reduced rate of professional negligence could result into fewer tailings failures in the future.
Professional industry bodies such as Engineers Australia should act to clarify the legal obligations and duties of engineers, as they are the best placed institutions to do so for the whole industry. In addition, consideration should be given to inclusion of a discussion of the aforementioned obligations and duties into relevant ANCOLD Guidelines.
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$15.00
2019 Papers
2019 – Tailings Dam Guidelines: Adopting International Direction
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David Brett
Recent tailings dam failures have led to worldwide alarm that we are still getting an average of two
significant tailings dam incidents a year. This is despite the efforts of various industry organisations aroundthe world to raise the standards of tailings dam management. Clearly, a significant number of mining dams are not re silient enough to ensure the required level of safety for sustainable mining operations in a modern world in which there is increasing concern for the environment. This paper updates ANCOLD with international developments in attempting to address shortcomings in the mining industry that is allowing these failures to continue to occur.
In Australia, ANCOLD have released an addendum to the 2012 ANCOLD Guidelines on Tailings Dams, Planning, Design, Construction, Operation and Closure, to coincide with the new ANCOLD Guidelines for Design of Dams and Appurtenant Structures for Earthquake. This addendum also addresses issues of governance of tailings dams and provides additional guidance on the serious issue of static-liquefaction, a critical factor in recent failures.
On the international scene, ICOLD is progressing a Tailings Dam Safety Bulletin that is hoped will set
minimum standards for Tailings Dams for all member countries. In addition, the International Council of Mining and Metallurgy (ICMM) similarly wants to establish an international standard. It is likely that these international bodies will cooperate to ensure a consistent set of guidelines and that countries will accept and implement these.
This paper updates the ANCOLD position regarding guidelines and describes the state of various
international guidelines following the June ICOLD meeting in Ottawa.
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$15.00
2019 Papers
2019 – In Defence of Upstream Tailings Dam Construction
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John Phillips, Laila Burger
The majority of Australian tailings dams over the last 100 years have been successfully built using upstream construction. However, recent major tailings dam failures in some countries have led to a global industry wide review of the design and management of tailings storage facilities, with a focus on the upstream raise method as a common factor for some failures. As a reaction to the recent failures, there is the potential for regulations to become more restrictive and the potential for unjustified pressure on existing and new mines to rule out upstream raising due to possible safety and failure risks.
This paper looks at whether it is the upstream construction method or other more fundamental issues that have led to these failures and examines whether such issues are equally relevant in Australia. Does Australia have a specific advantage in being able to successfully use upstream tailings dam construction or are we fooling ourselves?
The topic of upstream tailings storage is a subject of broad and current interest and the lessons learned from historic failures are rightfully leading to improvements. Implementation of good practice starts with the overall management structure that guides how tailings dams are designed, constructed, operated and closed.
Critical design practice involves understanding the unique site conditions, properties of the tailings and management of tailings placement, as the tailings form part of the overall retaining structure. Good practice during operation of upstream tailings dams is key to reducing the risk of tailings dam failures and the success of safe and sustainable closure.
This paper presents key features of both good and bad practice for the upstream raising of tailings dams and discusses how the design and operation can be made more resilient to ensure the safety of the community and infrastructure. It concludes that upstream raising can be a safe and economical method of tailings disposal if designed, constructed and operated correctly.
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2019 Papers
2019 – Liquefaction-Induced Displacement of Embankment Dams: How Good Are We in Predicting the Post-earthquake Displacements Using Numerical Models?
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Moji Kan
Many numerical simulations have tried to model the failure-induced displacements of earth structures due to liquefaction. In this paper, the challenges in modelling such as the large displacement and non-immediate failure of earth structures due to liquefaction are discussed. An advanced bounding surface plasticity model is used to simulate the dynamic behaviour of saturated porous media. A series of benchmark welldocumented seismic events are analysed, and the results are compared to the reported laboratory and field observations. These analyses consist of one centrifuge test on liquefiable sand (Model #12 of the VELACS project) and one earthfill dam (Lower San Fernando Dam in California) subjected to seismic loading that leads to liquefaction. The capability of the model to capture the flow failure due to liquefaction is demonstrated and results are compared with other attempts in the literature to capture similar responses.
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2019 Papers
2019 – Fault Investigation Practice in Australia and New Zealand: Why Australian Dam Owners and Operators Should Care About Collecting Active Fault Data
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D. Ninis, D. Clark
The ANCOLD Guidelines (2019) require that active and neotectonic faults which could significantly
contribute to the ground-shaking or ground-displacement hazard for a dam should be accounted for in seismic hazard assessments. While geological and geomorphological field investigations along suspected active fault structures are undertaken as a matter of course in New Zealand, this practice is relatively uncommon in Australia. Granted, rates of tectonic processes are greater in New Zealand than in intraplate Australia. However, moderate to large and damaging earthquakes are not uncommon in the Australian record; there have been ~26 earthquakes of magnitude >M6 in the last 150 years (~1 event every ~6 years) and similar events might be expected in the future. We present examples of investigations undertaken to better understand earthquake hazard for two faults – previous studies on the Wellington Fault, New Zealand, and new data from recent investigations of the Avonmore Scarp, southeast Australia. We report the results from these studies and discuss how the collection of similar data on faults proximal to Australian dams would allow dam owners and operators to better quantify seismic hazard and, thereby, more meaningfully comply with the ANCOLD guidelines.
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2018 2019 Papers
2019 – Seismic Performance Modelling of Mahinerangi Dam
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J. Lim, B. Walpole
Trustpower’s Mahinerangi Dam in New Zealand’s South Island is a concrete arch and gravity abutment dam built in 1931, subsequently raised in 1946 and strengthened with tie-down anchors in 1961.
This paper discusses a 3D finite element analysis of the dam and the predicted performance of the arch section under Safety Evaluation Earthquake (SEE) loading against identified potential failure modes.
Current guidelines and recent seismic hazard assessments recommend earthquake loadings higher than what was originally accounted for in previous decades. A Comprehensive Safety Review identified stability under SEE loading as a potential deficiency, so a programme of works was commenced to evaluate and better understand the seismic risk by using modern day tools and technology to evaluate the dam against current performance standards.
The final model incorporated the results of extensive laboratory testing, high-resolution LiDAR survey data and dynamic calibration using ambient-vibration monitoring. Motion recordings across the face of the dam during the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake were also used to validate the model. The reservoir has been explicitly modelled together with the opening, closing and sliding of contraction joints and the foundation interface. This allowed the modelling of permanent displacements and the redistribution of loads within the dam under SEE loading, which had been shown to be an important behaviour from the previous stages of analysis.
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2019 Papers
2019 – Probabilistic Fault Displacement Hazard Analysis for Dams in Australia
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Hong Kie Thio, Paul Somerville, Don Macfarlane
Fault displacement can occur due to primary faulting on a main fault intersecting a dam foundation or rim, as well as by secondary faulting. This secondary faulting may be triggered locally by the occurrence of primary faulting on a main fault; its occurrence is conditional on the occurrence of an earthquake on the main fault. A probabilistic approach is most viable for fault displacement hazard analysis. Unlike the case of probabilistic ground motion hazard, which is nonzero even for short return periods due to the occurrence of a broad range of earthquake magnitudes in a wide region around the site, probabilistic fault displacement hazard is zero for return periods less than the recurrence interval of surface faulting earthquakes on the fault. In Australia, these recurrence intervals typically lie in the range of 10,000 to 100,000 years.
Consequently, the fault displacement hazard due to primary faulting may be zero or negligible for return periods shorter than 10,000 or 100,000 years. For longer return periods, the hazard is best evaluated using a risk-based approach, as recommended by ANCOLD (2018); the alternative of using a deterministic approach, which disregards return period, could potentially yield a large fault displacement. The probability of triggered secondary faulting, conditional on the occurrence of a large earthquake on the main fault, is typically one or two orders of magnitude lower than that on the main fault, and so is even more likely to be zero or negligible for return periods shorter than 10,000 to 100,000 years
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