Embankment Dams: Some Lessons Learnt and New Developments

1999 E. H. Davis Memorial Lecture

Prof. Robin Fell

The lecture described some personal experience accumulated over 33 years of working on embankment dams as an investigations and design engineer, review consultant and supervisor of research. The issues covered included:

• Seepage in dams and their foundations.
• Internal erosion and piping failure, including filter design, and the factors which influence the initiation, and progression of piping leading to breach of the dam.
• Stability and deformation behaviour, and “aging” of dams.
• The role of Quantitative Risk Assessment in dam safety management.

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