Water resources | Developing Dongtaizi
The Dongtaizi Reservoir is a crucial water conservancy project being developed in China. Bentley’s OpenRoads Designer and OpenBuildings played an important role in the reservoir’s design
Amy Heffner, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, Bentley Systems Amy is a manager of civil product marketing at Bentley Systems, focused on the promotion of Bentley’s civil design applications. Joining Bentley in 2007, Heffner has held various roles in product marketing, corporate marketing, and user- focused events and trainings. She has over 15 years of experience in marketing, event planning, communications, and project management. Prior to her time at Bentley, Heffner worked as an associate producer at WPVI Philadelphia and as a marketing manager for DesignDesign, Inc., a Philadelphia area industrial and creative design firm.
WATER SCARCITY AND SEVERE flood risks in China have intensified over time, prompting the government to fund water conservation projects, such as reservoirs and dams. Located in Linxi County within Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, the Dongtaizi Reservoir is one of 172 major water conservancy developments outlined in China’s “National 13th Five-Year Plan” and one of 12 key livelihood projects in Inner Mongolia. This large-scale infrastructure is a vital water conservancy undertaking for the prefecture-level city of Chifeng due to the area’s immediate need for severe flood risk mitigation. Placed in the middle and upper reaches of the Xar Moron River, a part of the Xialamulun River Basin, the Dongtaizi Reservoir will improve flood control standards in the river’s lower reaches. The reservoir will also supply water for the construction and operation of Linxi Industrial Park, a gas refinery. Lastly, the reservoir will sustainably advance the local economy by providing critical agricultural irrigation and water supply to the areas adjacent to the lower reaches of the river. Liaoning Water Conservancy and Hydropower
Survey and Design Research Institute was responsible for delivering the reservoir design. Based on the potential of a 100-year flood recurrence, the proposed infrastructure is a rockfill dam with an asphalt core wall and a concrete gravity dam. Reaching up to 43.5m at its highest point, the dam will have a total storage capacity of 321 million m3
. Challenging landscape and
infrastructure The expansive location of the Dongtaizi Reservoir necessitated a precise geological survey, as the site’s terrain was complex. Therefore, the design team required a comprehensive understanding of both the rock mass that would support the prospective dam and the ground’s structural plane. In addition to the project’s surveying demands, the infrastructure design was also multifaceted.
Engineering the rockfill dam within the difficult
topography called for more than traditional methods, and the intricate structural design of the concrete dam included hydraulic and electrical engineering and a metal construction. Furthermore, the design required an ecological fishway so that migrating fish could pass through the dam. The fishway’s multidimensional torsion entailed significant excavation processes that could not be accurately conveyed with traditional 2D design. Liaoning Water needed the visualization capabilities of modeling software to remove human errors based on spatial imagination.
Embracing digital design software The reservoir design required collaboration among
multiple engineering disciplines, precise excavation drawings, an intuitive geological design, and a detailed dam design. Traditional design methodology would not achieve these results, so Liaoning Water employed Bentley’s building information modeling (BIM) software because of its cooperative design management platform. “From the feasibility study stage of the project, the company implemented the BIM technology forward design, and removed a large number of difficulties in 3D geology, 3D excavation, and dam design,” said Wang Yixin, director of the digital and smart engineering R&D center of Liaoning Water.
Overcoming obstacles The team began by using OpenRoads to execute an
accurate 3D geological survey of the dam location based on massive drilling and exploration line data. The application’s spatial analysis feature provided an audit of the dam foundation rock mass types, the structural plane, and the area’s block boundaries. To design the complicated ecological fishway and overcome the excavation challenges, they used OpenRoads Designer to create a detailed 3D geological model, which became the foundation for the dam design. They used the model to generate a geological section expansion map, with any cutting position or direction, to formulate the excavation plan. Visualization with the 3D model eliminated design conflicts, accurately calculated excavation volumes, and connected the mined landscape to the design model of the reservoir. The BIM software also allowed the team to position the junction of the fishway’s complicated spatial curve with the terrain.
Left: The Dongtaizi Reservoir Project is one of 172 major water conservancy projects in China and one of 12 key livelihood projects in Inner Mongolia meant to mitigate severe flood risk and combat water scarcity. Image courtesy of Liaoning Water Conservancy and Hydropower Survey and Design Research Institute Co., Ltd.
30 | August 2022 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
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