History of dams failures

Tigra Dam (Madya Pradesh - 1917) This was a hand placed masonry in lime mortar

gravity dam of 24m height, constructed for the purpose of water supply.A depth of 0.85m of water overtopped the dam over a length of 400m. This was equilatent to an outflow of 850 cumecs. Two major blocks were bodily pushed away.The failure was due to sliding.(Photo 1). The dam was reconstructed in 1929.

SAINT FRANCIS DAM (USA -1926-28)

The curved concrete gravity dam (radius 152m) of height 56m failed due to the seepage, mainly through foundation and little through the body of the dam. Except for the section at the middle portion, the other parts failed completely. The very large fragments resulted from rupture were scattered for a distance of several thousand metres downstream. 450 lives were lost. (Photo 2 and 3 )

HELL HOLE DAM (USA 1966)

The Hell Hole (lower) dam was a rockfill dam of height 125m, failed during construction, when the rains filled the reservoir to an elevation of 30m above the clay core.

BALDWIN HILLS DAM ( USA 1951-63)

This earthen dam of height 80m, was constructed for water supply, with its main earthen embankment at northern end of the reservoir and the five minor ones to cover low lying areas along the perimeter. The failure occurred at the northern embankment portion,

adjacent to the spillway( indicated a gradual deterioration of the foundation during the life of the structure) over one of the fault zones. The V-shaped breach was 27.5m deep and 23m wide. (Photos 5,6,7,8 show the sequence of the failure)

TETON DAM (USA -1976) This embankment dam of maximum height

93m, failed due to seepage through the dam.The seepage was initially noticed at mid height of right abutment downstream junction line and due to the piping, the dam breached. (Photo 9). The total duration for the complete development since the observation of the seepage was 4 hours.

PANSHET DAM (India -1961) This earth dam (51m high) failed during the first

filling itself. The reason assigned for the failure was, the poor construction resulting from accelerated pace of construction in order to achieve an earlier target.When the filling commenced, the dam was still incomplete. Due to very heavy rainfall (about 1780mm) in 23 days, the newly created reservoir was subjected to high inflow resulting in he failure of the dam. ( and added to the destructive flood at Khadakwasla dam situated down stream)

KHADAKWASLA DAM (INDIA 1864-1961) This rubble masonary dam was built for

supplying water to Pune district. The dam (30m high) was not designed for uplift forces and foundation drainage. As a result of very heavy rainfall (about 1780mm) in 23 days and the consequence of the failure of the Panshet dam in the upstream, brought a large volume of water into Khadakwasla reservoir .

This resulted in the flow of water about 3m in depth over the top of this dam.This 95 year old dam had withstood this onslaught for about 4 hours and at the failure time the receding flood had an elevation of about 2m above the top of the dam. (Photo 10)

MALPASSET (FRANCE 1954-59)

This is an arch dam of height 66m with 222m long crest at its crown. When the collapse occurred , the dam was subjected to a record head of water, which was just about 0.3m below the highest water level, resulting from 5 days of unprecedented rainfall.

The failure occurred as the arch ruptured as the left abutment gave away. The left abutment moved about 2m horizontally without any noticeable vertical movement. (Photo 11) The water marks left by the wave revealed that the release of water was almost at once.

VAIONT DAM (ITALY -1960-63) This is an arch dam 267m high. During the test

filling of the dam a land slide of volume 0.765 million cubic metre occurred into the reservoir and was not taken note of. During 1963, the entire mountain side slid into the reservoir ( volume of the slide 238million cubic metre which was slightly more than the reservoir volume itself) This material occupied 2km of reservoir upto a height of about 175mabove the reservoir level resulting in overtopping of the dam.

MACHHU II DAM (Gujarat India 1973-79)

About 18,200 cubic metre of water broke through 24.5 m high composite Machhu dam II ripping away its right and left flanks, due to 12 days of heavy rainfall which was 7 times the normal at that period. In addition to this Dantiwada dam failure brought additional water to this dam.

The spillway was designed to pass a peak flood of 5700 cumecs where as the peak flood generatrd exceeded 14000cumecs which resulted in the over topping of the earthen flanks. The entire Morvi town located downstream was washed out.

CHIKKOLE DAM (Karnataka India-1967-72)

The hand laid masonary dam 670m long and straight in plan except for a slight kink near thr right abutment and was 30m high. The dam was constructed in lime surkhi mortar, founded on rock consisting of weathered granitic gneiss.The dam breached suddenly during December 1972 at the right flank.

The failure was due to the tensile stresses and overturning.The dam had flaws like horizontal cracks due to over pressures during grouting. A rise in water level by 1.5m due to very large flood just preceeding thr breach accelerated the failure.

GOTTA BARRAGE (Orissa India 1976-80)

The Gotta barriage failed due to a flood peak of 50000cumecs against the design flood of 29000 cumecs. Photos 13 and 14 show the breached section on the left canal bank and the damages caused by the flash flood.