Dams
Dams
Dams
3 Dams in Albania.
6 Interesting facts.
What's a Dam?
.
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs
created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human
consumption, industrial use, aquaculture, and navigability. Hydropower is often used in conjunction
with dams to generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect or store water which can be evenly
distributed between locations. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while
other structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water
flow into specific land regions.
Egypt Roman
The Romans, highly regarded for their advances in hydraulic
Subsequent ancient dams were built by several cultures with
engineering, were prolific in dam construction during the height of the
varying rates of success. Approximately 400 years after the
empire. In addition to the vast network of aqueducts, the Romans built
construction of the highly successful Jawa Dam, Egyptians built
a plethora of gravity dams, most notably the Subiaco Dams, which
the Sadd el-Kafara, or Dam of the Pagans, most likely to supply
were constructed around 60 AD to create a pleasure lake for Emperor
water to the local quarries outside of Cairo rather than for
Nero. The Subiaco Dams were a series of three gravity dams on the
irrigation, since the flooding Nile would have supplied plenty of
Aniene River in Subiaco, Italy, the largest of which stood 165 feet tall
water to the farmers. After ten years of construction, the masonry
and held the honor of being the tallest dam in the world until its
dam was 37 feet tall, 348 feet long, with a base of 265 feet,
destruction in 1305, historically attributed to two careless monks. The
contained over 100,000 tons of gravel and stone, and had a
Romans also constructed the world’s first arch dam in the Roman
limestone cover to resist erosion. Unfortunately, as it was nearing
province of Gallia Narbonensis, now modern-day southwest France, in
completion, it failed.
the 1st century BCE.
During the dark ages, dam construction came to a near halt, resuming around the 15th century AD. During this time, no major
contributions to dam engineering were made, and the majority of the dams constructed in Europe, where rainfall is plentiful and
regular, were modest structures. It wasn’t until the 1850s, when civil engineering professor William John Macquorn Rankine at
Glasgow University demonstrated a better understanding of earth stability and structural performance, that dam engineering
improved. In fact, Rankine’s work was so innovative, it contributed to the acceptance of civil engineering as a valid university
subject and improved the status of civil engineers. Since Rankine, geological, hydrological, and structural scientific contributions
have been extensive, and the understanding of dam engineering has improved significantly as a result.
Modern Times
Major advances in concrete dam design were made from 1853 to 1910 by British and French engineers. During this
time, understanding of the relationship between the precise weight and profile of gravity dams and the horizontal
thrust of water increased extensively. In 1910, further advances were made as engineers began to take a more three
dimensional approach to dam engineering, examining the effect of individual stresses and deflections on multiple
points rather than on the structure as a whole. By recognizing the complexity of the structure and understanding its
interconnectedness, engineers were able to make exponential advances in dam engineering. As a result of this
enhanced understanding, model techniques were implemented at this time. Originally built in rubber, plaster,
plasticine, or concrete, modelling is now also done digitally, allowing multi-faceted and comprehensive testing and
examination of structural stability.
Arowwai Industries
EMBANKMENT DAMS
Embankment dams have historically been quite common in the UK, usually
found in sites with wide valleys. They are commonly constructed using
natural materials such as compacted earth or rocks which are often locally
quarried or excavated. In cross-section, an embankment dam is hill or bank
shaped, with a central core made from an impermeable material such as
clay soils or concrete, to prevent water passage.
GRAVITY DAMS
2.•Preparing the dam's foundation: If you have not sufficiently diverted water
from the river, you need to make a cofferdam to help you divert water from the
river to the tunnel. When building the foundation, stack the heaviest rocks
first, then increasingly smaller rocks to form a firm foundation bed.
3.•Assemble the main structure: Ensure there's no loose rock on the riverbed, and
construct a plinth (concrete foundation) to prevent water from leaking from the
dam edges. The next step is actual dam construction, where you build your main
structure on both sides of the foundation. Most dam construction projects use
reinforced concrete steel to make the dam resilient against water flow.
4•Filling the reservoir: After building the dam to the desired height, the next
step is filling the reservoir. You then need to test whether the valves and
floodgates work and monitor the behavior of the freshly built dam.
HIDRO-A
DAMS IN ALBANIA
Dams in
Albania
In Albania there are currently 10 very large dams with a height of over 60 m and 3 main
cascades built on the rivers Drin, Devoll and Mat which are used for hydro power. At the
same time, they are the dams with the highest risk of damage to the economy and loss of
people in the event of a catastrophic natural event or possible breakdown of a dam. The
main cascade for hydro-power is Drini Cascade. It is unique in Europe in regard to the
dam types and their heights, the artificial lakes created, the installed power of the HPPs
and their Operational Management. The Drini river in northern Albania has been
transformed into a chain of 3 artificial lakes with total water capacity of 3.4 billion m3
which supply water to the three largest Hydro-power plants (HEPP-s) of Albania. The
HEPP-s of Fierza, Koman and Vau i Dejes are built in period 1971 to 1986. Their installed
capacity is 1350 MW and their average energy production is 4 000 GWh per year.
All hydro-power large dams are objects of special importance and require the taking of
all organizational, technical and financial measures to guarantee their normal use,
longer life and non-intrusion of third parties in the phase of construction, use and
maintenance.
The Devoll
Hydropower
The Devoll Hydropower Project (DHP) consists of two power
plants; Banjë (72 MW) and Moglicë (197 MW), both located
on the Devoll River in southeast Albania.Devoll river is the
main tributary which joins the Osum River to create the
Seman River which discharges to the Mediterranean Sea.
Above this confluence, the Devoll has a catchment area of
approximately 3119 km2 and elevation ranging from 22 m
to 2386 m.
Banjë dam is located 70 km southeast of Albania’s capital
Tirana, and Moglicë a further 50 km upstream. The 80m
high Banjë dam incorporated the former unfinished Banjë
project structures. Moglicë is one of the world’s tallest
asphalt core dams, at 167 m. The annual hydropower
generation from both plants of 700 GWh increased
Albania’s electricity generation by approximately 13
percent when they came into operation.
Drin River
sub-basin
There are three major dams and associated reservoirs built on the Drin River. Of
these, the Fierza reservoir has by far the largest storage. From October to March, the
winter level is not exceeded, though during April, it increases to the maximum
operating level. This provides maximum flood protection in winter when most floods
occur, when the accumulated run-off from the last month of snow melt in spring
maximizing available storage for summer. The total volume of all three reservoirs on
the Drin River equals 3.76 x 109 m3, which is greater than the average volume of Lake
Skadar/Shkodër.
An analysis indicated that the operation of the dams in the Drin cascade is an
important factor influencing the flow regime downstream of the Drin River and the
Buna/Bojana River, and therefore influences the hydrological conditions in Lake
Skadar/Shkodër. The functioning of the three dams alters the natural intra-annual
flow distribution downstream of the dams, reducing some of the peak discharges
during the wet season and increasing average discharges during the dry season.
Because of the volume of its reservoir, the operation of the Fierza dam can -under
specific conditions- affect the multiannual discharge distribution and eventual
flooding events.
ATATÜRK
DAM (TURKEY)
Located on the Euphrates River, the Atatürk Dam is the
largest in Turkey and ranks sixth among the largest earth-
and-rock-fill embankment dams in the world. It is the main
center of the 22 dams that exist on the Euphrates and Tigris,
which make up the integrated sectors of the Southeast
Anatolia Project. Built both to generate electricity and to
irrigate the plains in the region, it was renamed in honor of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), the founder of the
Turkish Republic. The dam is situated 23 km (14 mi)
northwest of Bozova, Şanlıurfa Province, on state road D-
875 from Bozova to Adıyaman. The dam embankment is 169
m high and 1,820 m long. The hydroelectric power plant
(HEPP) has a total installed power capacity of 2,400 MW and
generates 8,900 GW·h electricity annually. The total cost of
the dam project was about US$1,250,000,000.
Monticello Dam is a 304-foot (93 m) high concrete arch dam in Napa County, California, United States, constructed between
1953 and 1957. The dam impounded Putah Creek to create Lake Berryessa in the Vaca Mountains. Water from the reservoir
primarily supplies agriculture in the Sacramento Valley downstream. The dam is noted for its classic, uncontrolled morning-
glory-type spillway .The diameter at the lip is 72 ft (22 m). Locally, the spillway is also known as the "Glory Hole. The dam's
morning-glory-type spillway, known as the Glory Hole, is 72 feet (22 m) in diameter at lake level and narrows down to about 28
feet (8.5 m) at the exit. At the lake's peak level, the spillway can drain 48,400 cubic feet per second (1,370 m3/s), which occurs
when the lake level rises to 15.5 feet (4.7 m) above the level of the funnel
Contra Dam is a slender concrete arch dam standing at a height of 220 m with a length of 380
Gordon Dam m. Due to the slimmer design of the dam, the volume of concrete required for its construction
was reduced, thereby reducing the cost of the infrastructure. The dam was constructed in 1974
by the Hydro Electric Corporation (TAS) for the purpose of generating hydro-electric power via
(Australia) the conventional Gordon Power Station located below the dam wall.