Characterization of leakage water flows in the subsoil of Beni Haroun dam by hydrogeological approach

Abstract

Dams are designed and built to withstand severe destabilising conditions, including seepage problems, which are very often linked to localized discontinuity stress in the rock foundations, or in the banks. This situation allows water to take different circulation paths, and consequently jeopardizes the stability of the dam and reduces its useful capacity. The Beni Haroun dam, located in the North-Eastern part of Algeria on the Oued El-Kebir, with a water storage capacity of about 1 billion m 3 , the dam is located on a Ypresian (Karst) limestone mass with an estimated annual leakage volume of 31.536 hm 3 . The present work focuses on the identification of the water leakage origin in the Beni Haroun dam, using a hydrogeological approach, which consists in interpreting the correlation between the water level in the reservoir and that in the piezometers installed around the dam, for the period 2003 to 2021. The results revealed some interesting findings.