One of the leading causes of failure of both new and old embankment dams is internal erosion or piping. Analyzing the problem by risk methods necessitates the development of methodology to guide the estimation of failure probabilities. Since about 1998, efforts have been occurring collaboratively in both Australia and the United States to develop such a methodology. Starting in 2005, the US Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers embarked on an alliance to complete a "joint" document that both agencies could use when analyzing the risk of their inventory of dams. Both agencies financially sponsored a contract with URS Corporation, through which expertise was secured within the Australian dam community, to prepare the document. This paper discusses the development of the methodology and briefly describes the results of this collaborative effort.
展开▼
