One-day Course: Internal Erosion in Embankment Dams
Phenomenological and experimental standpoint

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About the course

Internal erosion, alongside overtopping, is one of the most hazardous issues that can affect the safety of embankment dams.

Internal erosion in soils involves very complex hydro-mechanical phenomena, whereby a large number of factors (some of them as yet unknown in all probability) play an important role. It is thus natural that the research so far on internal erosion is predominantly of an empirical nature and experimentally based.

Over the last decades there has been a growing interest at finding ways to estimate the probability of failure by internal erosion, as a part of risk assessment for dam safety. To this end, the internal erosion process leading to dam failure is usually broken in smaller events. These are more easily understood and simpler to estimate probabilities.

This one-day course aims at improving the knowledge and understanding by the participants about the process of internal erosion in embankment dams, in a dam safety context.

The emphasis is placed on the phenomenological and experimental standpoint. The main factors influencing each step of the internal erosion process are presented. The most relevant laboratory tests/empirical studies for the study of the likelihood of occurrence of the various phenomena involved are also indicated.

Filters are the first line of defence against internal erosion. Thus, some best practices concerning the design and construction of filters are indicated.

Who should attend?

• Dam owner engineers, designers, consultants,contractors and regulators dealing with risks associated with internal erosion phenomena in embankment dams and their foundations during first filling or operation phases,

• PPhD/MSc students and graduated students with ongoing studies in topics related with internal erosion in soils

Important notes

• The number of participants is limited to 30
• The organization may decide to cancel the course
  if a minimum number of participants is not achieved

Speakers

• Emanuel Maranha das Neves, IST, Portugal
• Laura Caldeira, LNEC, Portugal
• Alexius Vogel, Risk Assessment International, Austria
• Ricardo Correia dos Santos, LNEC, Portugal

Registration Fee: 250 EUROS

Lunch and refreshments are included in the registration fee