India dam break Facebook and fake news finds its inspiration in a series of very recent events. Very unfortunately one of them, the Rishiganga dam collapse (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55969669), was mortiferous. World-wide water storage structures are ageing A report by UNU-INWEH, Ageing Water Storage Infrastructure: An Emerging Global Risk, provides an overview of the phenomenon. Indeed tens of thousands of existing large dams have reached 50 years of age. In addition, many others will approach 100 years. For instance, UK has the…
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Today we explore the relationship between Failure modes and catastrophic failures. Catastrophic failure of tailings dam and its water management structures are the likely result of the failure of a number of essential components or any combination of states. We purposely use a different terminology from failure modes because they explain how the dam can fail, but not why. If we look at past events, hydro dams and tailings dam are similar as, for example Oroville and Fundao did fail…
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We are learning that structural integrity of hydro dams is also becoming an issue. Thus, similarly to tailings dams, we need a strategic operational and tactical planning for tailings hydro dams! Karl Terzaghi, American Society of Civil Engineers, “Terzaghi Lectures, 1974-1982,” American Society of Civil Engineers (1986) ISBN 0-87262-532-X. proposed that a dam rating system should provide ALL of the following: A logical framework for rating the relative safety of a dam Allow for the use of judgment and experience…
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Mount Polley Dam Breach: discussing Tailings Dam Failure Frequency and Portfolio Risk. Continued Mount Polley Dam Breach: discussing Tailings Dam Failure Frequency and Portfolio Risk. Continued. The mandate given to the expert panel forced them to consider all failures “equal”. Thus the risk equation became the simple expression of the probability of failure. We have discussed how tolerance and risk engineering would apply to large portfolios of dams and other critical infrastructures. We also expressed our opinion in the aftermath…
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