Abstract:
The book sets out to present a state of practice of the geotechnical engineering of embankment dams and their foundations and the geotechnical engineering of the foundations of
concrete dams.
It assumes that the reader is trained in Civil Engineering or Engineering Geology, with
knowledge of soil and rock mechanics.
There is an emphasis on the assessment of existing dams, as well as investigation, design
and construction of new dams. We have set out to give the background to design
methods, as well as the methods themselves, so the reader can develop a proper understanding of them. The book is largely written about large dams, which ICOLD (1974)
define as:
Large Dam: A dam which is more than 15 metres in height (measured from the lowest
point in the general foundations to the crest of the dam), or any dam between 10 metres and
15 metres in height which meets one of the following conditions:
– the crest length is not less than 500 metres;
– the capacity of the reservoir formed by the dam is not less than one million cubic
metres;
– the maximum flood discharge dealt with by the dam is not less than 2000 cubic metres per
second;
– the dam is of unusual design.
Three of the authors wrote “Geotechnical Engineering of Embankment Dams” (Fell,
MacGregor and Stapledon, 1992). This book has some common elements with that book but
has been extensively revised to reflect the current state of practice and the knowledge the
authors have gained since that book was written, particularly about how existing dam
