SAFETY PERFORMANCE OF DAMS IN CHILE’S HIGHLY SEISMIC ENVIRONMENT 4.1 Rockfill dams with a central impervious core


The construction of the first rockfill dams followed a conventional design with a central impervious core, rockfill shoulders and transition material between core and shoulder. These dams were Caritaya (32m), built in 1935, and two dams built privately – La Marquesa (23m) and El Sauce (21m), built in 1940 and 1946, respectively. There is no information available regarding the performance of the latter two, but a review carried out in 2011 of the dams built by MOP[3] showed the good condition of the Caritaya dam located in the extreme region of North Chile.


An evolution of the original concept of the rockfill dam with central clay core is represented by Los Cristales dam (31m high), built in 1977 by MOP including an asphalt core. The cross-section of the dam, and details of the top and bottom of the asphalt core, are shown in Figure 27. The dam was visited after the Maule earthquake in view of its relatively short distance to the fault trace and epicentre. The asphaltic vertical core has a constant thickness of 60cm. The post-seismic survey carried out on the dam indicated settlements of the shells of only a few millimetres. Even though the seismic response of this dam was satisfactory the core settled about 14cm (Figure 27) next to the left abutment of the dam shown in Figure 26.[14]


Figure 27. Cross-section design of Los Cristales dam


Vol XXXI Issue 3


DAM ENGINEERING


209


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95