Back Analysis of Tabarakabad Embankment Dam Using Monitoring and Numerical Model Results

Dams have an essential role in development of economic and water supply in Iran. In addition, due to annual decline in rainfall and hydropower production requirement, water resources management is one of the most important issues. It is worth noting the construction of dam, not only supply the required water of farmers, but also prevents the occurrence of floods devastating and incidence of drought in low rainfall season. After the destruction of the Teton Dam in 1976, which lead to deaths of several people and losses of several hundred million dollars, it was proposed to be placed instruments in body of dams to identify and warn behavior such as seepage or settlement. By studying the results of instrumentations and evaluate the changes of reading data during the time, it’s possible to identify the phenomena that lead to erosion or destruction of dam and prevent from happening of these events or minimize the potential damages (Beiranvand et al., 2013). Currently, numerical modeling and geotechnical software are used to analyzed and designing geotechnical structures which their results can be compared with information are recorded by instrumentations. Recent studies indicate this technique is one of the most suitable methods to estimate soil dams behaviors, as lots of numerical models provide an acceptable estimation of displacement and stress values in embankment dams.