2005
DOI: 10.2113/11.1.61
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Austin Dam, Pennsylvania: The Sliding Failure of a Concrete Gravity Dam

Abstract: The Austin Dam, a concrete gravity structure, failed catastrophically on September 30, 1911, less than 2 years after its construction. Several engineering evaluations of the failure have been made since immediately following the disaster. Engineers involved in the construction of the dam recognized early on that the dam failed by sliding on its rock foundation. The dam was constructed on interbedded sedimentary rock, and its foundation was taken to a depth of approximately 4 ft (1.2 m). Although studies of the… Show more

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Cited by 10 publications
(3 citation statements)
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“…(1) During the calculation we can take dam of certain length as object according to the specific geological conditions [4], but not dam of certain width, there can`t exists structural surface along the direction of river with high dip in the calculating unit, if so the calculating unit should be divided again.…”
Section: Precautionsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…(1) During the calculation we can take dam of certain length as object according to the specific geological conditions [4], but not dam of certain width, there can`t exists structural surface along the direction of river with high dip in the calculating unit, if so the calculating unit should be divided again.…”
Section: Precautionsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…According to ICOLD (1974), foundation deficiencies are one of the main causes of failure of gravity dams. For high gravity dams built on rock foundations with discontinuities, such as faults, fissures and joints, the dam monoliths may slide along potential sliding surfaces composed of discontinuities in the foundation together with part of the foundation rock (Martt et al, 2005). The foundation stability is of great concern considering the catastrophic consequences induced by failure of high gravity dams on complicated rock foundations (Petaccia et al, 2016).…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Interlayer shear zone is one of the most serious engineering geological problems in these conditions. There have been dozens of dam failures (Martt et al 2005;Alonso et al 2010), such as S. Francis and Austin gravity dam in the USA, Tigra Dam in India, and Vaiont landslide in Italy. Therefore, it is the premise and foundation that analyze and evaluate the stability of dam for fully understanding rock mass engineering geological characteristics of dam foundation, mainly including mechanical parameters of rock mass, weathering degree of rock mass, permeability of rock mass, and spatial distribution of weak zone.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%