2019 – A Novel Solution for Ensuring Post-Earthquake Operability of Outlet Towers
Cameron Purss, Francisco Lopez, Steve Gray
Earthquake design of a dam and associated appurtenant structures is a key aspect of dam design in the modern era. This paper outlines the design process undertaken to address potential earthquake loading for the 32m high outlet tower to be constructed as part of the new Eurobodalla Southern Storage project on the NSW South Coast. The driver for the project is to provide increased water supply security to communities on the South Coast, an area that is currently serviced by a single reservoir and is subject to frequent water restrictions. Construction is planned to commence for the project in early 2021.
This paper presents the design methodology undertaken to meet the requirements for earthquake design and presents a novel defensive design solution to improve the reliability of the outlet works for post-earthquake operation. The Authors contend that utilising this approach in design of future outlet towers will provide a greater level of confidence in the ability to undertake intervening measures following a severe earthquake. Moreover, the technology has the potential to serve as a relatively inexpensive interim upgrade measure for existing outlet towers expected to sustain an unacceptable degree of damage under earthquake loading.
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2019 Papers
2019 – Modelling Reservoirs with a 2D Hydraulic Model
Learn moreAndrew Northfield, David Stephens, Tim Craig, Mitchell Smith
In recent times two dimensional (2D) hydraulic modelling has become the most common type of modelling for undertaking dambreak assessments. Direct map outputs such as depth and depth-velocity product are very useful in assessing risk across a floodplain. The temporal output from 2D models also enables the tracking of flow across a floodplain, helping practitioners and dam owners alike make informed decisions on warning time and evacuation routes. These outputs form essential input to packages such as HEC-LifeSim an agent-based simulation model for estimating life loss by simulating population redistribution during an evacuation.
A number of investigations have shown the hydraulic model, TUFLOW, is able to simulate the hydraulic conditions expected in a dambreak flood wave, giving confidence in the model’s ability to correctly capture the flood wave propagation. Notwithstanding this ability, there remains uncertainty over the best methodology to adopt when assigning a breach hydrograph to the model and in turn the impact this choice has on assessing downstream populations at risk.
A commonplace method of assigning dam breach hydrographs is to model the reservoir and dam structure with a 1D model or spreadsheet, where the storage is represented with a stage storage relationship and outflow through a time-varying breach is calculated using level-pool routing. The resulting hydrograph is then applied directly to a 2D model immediately downstream of the dam to model the propagation of flow downstream.
An alternative approach consists of representing the entire reservoir, dam and downstream floodplain in the 2D model. This allows for the dynamic effects of bathymetric constrictions in the reservoir to be accounted for which could greatly impact on the timing and shape of the dam breach hydrograph. However, this comes at a cost, as representing the reservoir in 2D requires bathymetry data which can be expensive to capture and also may require a major extension of the model domain.
In this paper the ‘Fully 2D’ and ‘Stage storage relationship 1D/Spreadsheet’ approaches are compared for a number of case studies.
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2019 Papers
2019 – Vertical Gate Design: Considerations for resilience
Learn moreDean Hassall, Kristen Koo, Simon Sam
Vertical gates and their operating plant are an essential part of dam safety at many dam sites. Apportioning appropriate levels of resilience during the design phase requires a thorough understanding of a gate system as a whole, not only of a single component in isolation.
This paper offers a designer’s perspective on modern engineering design features, materials and practices which can improve gate resilience during onerous operating conditions. This is of particular relevance to gates that are seldom used. Design aspects relating to the capability and limitations of the gate, hoist type, power supply arrangement and control system equipment to work together as a complete system are paramount design considerations in ensuring overall system resilience.
A discussion of the role and duty a hydraulic gate has in a dam safety context is presented. Supporting commentary is offered on appropriate levels of reliability, redundancy and diversity, including a comparison of different gate, bearing and hoist types. The authors draw on their own experience regarding gate design, fabrication and operation from completed and ongoing projects both locally and internationally.
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2019 Papers
2019 – Waimea Community Dam: Design of a resilient CFRD in a Highly Seismic Environment
Learn moreD. A. Fletcher, J.O. Grimston, M.C.N. Taylor, D. J. Andrews, H. J. Bowen, P. Cazalis de Fondouce, E. Guilleminot, I. G. Walsh
The Waimea Community Dam will be the largest multipurpose concrete face rockfill dam (CFRD) to be constructed in New Zealand. This 53 m high CFRD will impound a reservoir of 13 Mm3 and is essential to securing the future water needs of the community and environment of the Waimea Plains and wider Tasman/Nelson region.
The design of this unique large dam in the New Zealand context was a long-term collaboration of local dam design expertise and international experience that took the ‘historic precedent based design approach’ for CFRD’s and supplemented this with modern embankment design techniques for the highly seismic environment at the dam site. Design of this High Potential Impact Category dam presented a range of technical challenges for the designers and wider project team, which required new and innovative design solutions and approaches.
The dam features a number of unique arrangements in the New Zealand context including:- A 4 m high parapet wall with horizontal movement joint connection to the concrete face and designed to accommodate displacements and embankment deformation due to seismic induced crest accelerations of up to 1.9g.
- A twin barrel diversion culvert through the dam designed for the high seismic loads and with geometry to accommodate construction diversion floods and following closure, installation of two pressure pipe conduits within the culvert that consider future maintenance and accessibility requirements.
- A mass concrete starter dam at the upstream toe to provide regular geometry for the plinth and concrete face above the diversion culvert.
The project had its origins in the early 2000’s. Detailed design commenced in 2010, and was externally peer reviewed. The detailed design stage was undertaken in an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process which was completed in February 2019.
This paper covers the important seismic design aspects for this large dam, including understanding and designing for the potential range of displacements and embankment deformations to inform the crest parapet wall and diversion culvert designs, and understand how differing rockfill properties might affect the dam performance. Quantifying the range of potential dam performance enabled a more resilient dam design.
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2019 Papers
2019 – Natural Hazard Exposure Assessments of New Zealand’s Stopbank (Levee) Network: Integrating a New Stopbank Inventory and Recent Seismic Hazard Models
Learn moreDaniel M Blake, Liam Wotherspoon, Kaley Crawford-Flett, Eduardo Pascoal, Matthew Wilson
The geographical location of New Zealand to the south west of the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’ and in the ‘Roaring Forties’ of the Pacific Ocean exposes national infrastructure networks across the country to a range of natural hazards. Despite this, studies of built environment resilience to natural hazards in New Zealand, have historically focused on the robustness of individual physical assets, with less emphasis on the performance of infrastructure networks at a national level. This is particularly true for the stopbank (levee) network. Until recently, stopbanks have often been considered at regional scales and to varying degrees depending on what information has been catalogued, and the level of interest / requirements and local expertise available at the time.
We present the findings of a preliminary national level natural hazard exposure assessment of New Zealand’s stopbank network by adopting the newly developed New Zealand Inventory of Stopbanks (NZIS). Geospatial seismic hazard data from recent modelling is used as a case study to demonstrate how understanding the exposure of stopbanks in NZIS can inform multi-hazard risk and resilience assessments. Four seismic and co- seismic hazard metrics are considered in our stopbank network exposure assessment: surface rupture (through proximity to known active faults), the strength of ground shaking (i.e. probabilistic estimates of peak ground accelerations and velocities), and liquefaction and landslide susceptibility.
With over 20% of current catalogued NZIS stopbank length and a relatively high seismic hazard exposure (active fault proximity and liquefaction susceptibility) in Southland, the likelihood of stopbank failure or breaching due to seismic activity appears to be relatively high in this region of New Zealand. Large sections of the stopbank network in other regions including Manawatu-Wanganui, Wellington and Hawkes Bay are also particularly exposed to large seismic hazards in our preliminary assessment. However, further work is required to more appropriately understand stopbank attributes including design and safety considerations.
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2019 Papers
2019 – The Long-Term Performance of Seepage Improvement Works at New Zealand Dams and Canals
Learn moreDon Tate
Failure modes of seepage and internal erosion have been identified as one of the key issues for the
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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.