From plugging prevention to leak control, my dam safety journey

Mondo Health Updated on 2024-01-30

Dam plugging

Dam safety is an important barrier to ensure the safety of people's lives and property losses. From plugging prevention to leakage control, I have made a comprehensive review of the dam construction and look forward to the future.

1.Anti-blocking. Since the beginning of this year's rainy season, the battle for dam safety has officially begun. As the main force in this battle, we have carried out a comprehensive inspection of 22 reservoirs that have been built or are under construction, and found a total of 797 hidden dangers, including 154 main dams and 179 auxiliary damsThere are 19 reservoir dam crest overflow corridors collapsed, leakage and other dangerous situations;According to the preliminary judgment of experts, the water storage rate of all reservoirs will be less than 10% if there is no disease risk;Up to now, 24 reservoir dams have been reinforced, and some of the remaining 20 or so still need to be rebuilt. Although there are still a few new dams in the downstream that have not been put into use, this is not a problem for the flood control work in 2013, after careful design and construction, all parts of the country are actively promoting the leakage control project, on average about 600,000 cubic meters of flood capacity loss per year, and the next few years can further reduce the degree of reservoir capacity loss.

2.Drain cure. In the past, the treatment of leaks was to plug first and then treat. Now that I have changed my thinking, the method I have taken is seepage prevention construction and drainage pipe excavation. "At the Gaotang Water Conservancy Hub in Shandong, there are 38 large holes in the dam that is only 1 kilometer long and more than 300 meters deep, with the longest hole being 10 meters high and the shortest being about 4 meters. This work has been going on for many years. Through the study and analysis of the flood of the dam breach, we found that the grouting can only prevent about 20% of the water flow within the area of the breach, and these areas are the areas with the greatest pressure when the dam bursts. As the water travels downstream, it encounters a variety of risk points and dangers, such as crossing landslidesCrossing a landslide or a debris flow dammed lake;If you encounter water gushing from an underground cave. We also need to continuously explore the geological environment of the site, carefully detect potential hazards, and then develop a systematic prevention and control plan to prevent water leaks. "In retrospect, I think it's a simple concept, but it's not easy to really do it well. Guo Junhui believes that this method should be extended to the entire reservoir group, irrigation reservoirs and other places, so as to improve the ability to guarantee safe operation.

3.My Dam Safety Journey.

As a dam expert, one of the words I often hear is: "Drain control". The so-called leakage control here refers to the impact of downstream leakage and other problems on the normal operation of the upstream as much as possible under the premise of ensuring the safe operation of the dam. However, with the advancement of technology and the application of new materials and methods, it is found that the real cause of dam leakage often does not come from the engineering structure itself. In the face of the topic of the century of preventing blockage or curing leakage, we might as well take a look at how difficult it is to control the sourceAccording to statistics, about 20% of the world's dikes are deformed by seepage every year, of which China alone accounts for 7 percent. This means that if these problems are not solved at the root, water conservancy and hydropower construction will encounter huge challenges. In addition to the usual level of leakage, there is a more serious situation where a dam may fail. In 2015, during the flood control in the south, the Pengshui Guanyang station broke twice. These emergencies not only seriously threaten the safety of local people's lives and property, but also trigger a great discussion in the society about the ability, sense of responsibility and professionalism of relevant departments. Therefore, whether it is to help the people in the disaster area get out of their predicament, reduce risk losses, reduce economic losses, or for the long-term development of water conservancy and hydropower undertakings, it is necessary to strengthen the structure and management of dam design and construction.

In short, from prevention to treatment, we can effectively reduce the occurrence of reservoir disasters. This is a good start, and I hope to continue to work to improve the level of dam protection in the future.

Related Pages