Study on the key engineering geological problems of the high rock slope at the Jinping I hydro-power station, China

摘要

In the last 20 years, the rapid economic development in China has dramatically increased the demand for electricity. Therefore, a lot of large hydro-power companies entered the southwestern part of China to explore hydro-power there because the southwest has abundant hydro resources, about 70% of the total resources in China. The southwestern part of China is in the eastern margin of the neogenic Tibetan Plateau, which is a young and active plateau. Because of the ongoing extrusion of the Indian Plate and the consequent strong uplifting of the Tibetan Plateau, the southwestern region is tectonically very active and has very complex geological conditions, which are mainly reflected in the high mountain and narrow valley topography, the high ground stress, the strong unloading and weathering, the fault zones and the thick cover on riverbeds. Undoubtedly, the above poor geological conditions have created big challenges for the high dam construction in this region. We have to face various complex geological problems, such as the stability and related control meas-ures of high slopes, the stability of the abutment and foundation of high dams, the stability of the large scale underground powerhouse and deeply-buried long tunnel, and the stability of the large reservoir bank slopes etc. Among these problems, the stability of high slopes under complex geological conditions is the most common one. Better understanding and evaluation of the stability of high slopes as well as design of suitable control measures are waiting to being resolved by both geologists and geotechnical experts.