Webinar: Internal Erosion - Applying Erosion Mechanics


This event qualifies for 2 PHDs


Internal erosion causes about half of all failures of water-retaining earth embankment dams. Similar statistics apply to levees. Internal erosion occurs when the hydraulic loads imposed by water seeping through the pores or flowing through cracks and openings in the soils in embankments and their foundations generate erosive forces sufficient to overcome the resistance to erosion of those soils. The knowledge of internal erosion processes has advanced significantly over the past two decades. The two volumes of ICOLD Bulletin 164 (ICOLD 2017, ICOLD, 2016) reflects the results of a group of international experts to collect information from experience, case histories and research to provide guidance on internal erosion for engineers in dams and levees. The accumulation of knowledge led to the definition and understanding of the mechanics of the four modes of internal erosion. This understanding of internal erosion mechanics makes it possible for engineers to estimate the hydraulic load that will likely cause internal erosion to failure. The mechanics of the modes of internal erosion (mechanisms) can be combined with the internal erosion pathways through embankments and their foundations to developed detailed descriptions of potential failure modes (PFMs). If desired these detailed PFM descriptions can be used in quantitative risk analyses. This webinar will include discussion of all of the concepts described above, with reference to how the Bulletin provides a reference to the application of these concepts in dam safety evaluations and risk analyses.

 

Five Learning Objectives of This On-Demand Course:

  • Exposure to the international knowledge concerning internal erosion reflected in ICOLD Bulletin 164
  • Understanding of the four mechanisms of internal erosion (IE)
  • Understanding of how IE mechanisms combine with pathways to create potential failure modes
  • Improved ability to estimate IE erosion risks, both quantitatively and qualitatively
  • Improved ability to identify vulnerabilities to internal erosion for existing dams and levees

Speaker and Presenter Information

Rodney Bridle
Dam Safety Ltd.
Principal

 

Rodney Bridle is the UK Member of the ICOLD Technical Committee on Embankment Dams. He is the editor and part-author of the two volumes of ICOLD Bulletin 164 on Internal Erosion in Existing Dams, Dikes and Levees, which deal primarily with the mechanics of internal erosion. To spread this important new knowledge he has written papers, participated in workshops and made many presentations around the world. Rod is a widely experienced consulting civil engineer specializing in the performance and safety of embankment dams. His particular present interest is in applying new and old knowledge to understand the behavior of the now large numbers of existing embankment dams and levees to make them safe and economically effective. He has completed many quantitative risk assessments using UK guidance; some were presented at ASCE Geo-risk in Denver in 2017 and at ICOLD in Vienna in 2018. He has supervised substantial and minor safety works at dams vulnerable to internal erosion. He is a member of BC Hydro’s Expert Engineering Panel with Emeritus Professor Robin Fell (University of New South Wales, Australia) and Dr Kaare Hoeg (Norwegian Geotechnical Institute) reviewing the seepage control functions of existing high dams in Canada. He was a Partner and Director of Watson Hawksley and Montgomery Watson (later MWH, now Stantec) and is a former Chair of the British Dam Society and a life member of USSD.
 
John France
JWF Consulting LLC
 
John W. France, PE, D.GE, D.WRE is a registered professional engineer providing consulting services through JWF Consulting LLC. He received BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from Cornell University. John has more than 40 years of consulting engineering experience, during which time he has worked on hundreds of civil engineering projects. For the past 35 years his professional career has been focused on dam engineering and dam safety services. During his career, John has been involved in various capacities in evaluating and remediating seepage issues for earth dams. He has written numerous papers on the topic, and in 2012 he was an invited speaker at a FEMA workshop on filters and seepage remediation. He was engaged by the Montana Dam Safety office to prepare a technical note on chimney filter design for posting on the State’s website, and he has been an instructor for ASDSO’s seepage analysis course; ASDSO workshops on seepage rehabilitation and internal erosion failure modes; and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ courses on seepage rehabilitation and embankment dam design. John has participated as facilitator or subject matter expert on numerous risk analyses of internal erosion issues, most recently serving as facilitator for an internal erosion risk analysis for Mosul Dam in Iraq. In 2017, he was the leader of the Independent Forensic Team charged with identifying the causes of the February 2017 Oroville Dam spillway incident.
 

Relevant Government Agencies

Army, Dept of Agriculture, Dept of Energy, Dept of Homeland Security, Dept of the Interior, Other Federal Agencies, State Government, County Government, City Government, Municipal Government, FEMA, Federal Government, State & Local Government, Foreign Governments/Agencies


Event Type
Webcast


This event has no exhibitor/sponsor opportunities


When
Wed, Nov 6, 2019


Cost

Member:  $99.00
Non-Member:  $130.00


Website
Click here to visit event website


Organizer
Association of State Dam Safety Officials


Contact Event Organizer



Return to search results