THESIS SUMMARY

TITLE: RESERVOIR PLANNING AND DAM DESIGN

SOFTWARES USED: AUTO CAD AND MICROSOFT EXCEL

BACKGROUND:

The project is about designing of a dam and a spillway for a river to control its flow and to generate
electricity. Softwares which have been used are AUTO CAD and Microsoft Excel taking all the
parameters into considerations which can affect the stability of the dam. Selection of site is the
major contributing factor and the points which should be kept in mind are:-

 Dam should not be located in a seismic zone.

 Seismic risk should also be as low as possible.
 There should be a large reservoir or empty land where water can be stored.
 The soil should be properly explored and checked for faults.

A spillway is a structure constructed at the dam site for disposing of entire surplus water at the time
of the arrival of worst design flood.

After the above points have been taken care of, the actual construction work begins.

WORK:

In this project our main aim was to develop profile of dam which is safe in all respects and is the
most economical one. So we have taken a general dam profile and then calculated all the loads
acting over it like self weight, uplift force from soil, water pressure, earthquake forces and wind
pressure. An Excel Sheet is prepared by these load values and moments coming due to these loads
are also calculated using excel. Then the dam is checked for safety in sliding and overturning. The
most possible combination of the above loads are taken to calculate the factor of safety.

After this according to the material used, space used and other factors we have calculated the cost
of the dam and then by changing the various parameters we will make a profile using AUTO CAD
which is more economically feasible.

Then the above dam profile is checked or redesigned by using method of zoning so that the dam
does not fail from any upward position. By this method we check the movement of water from the
body of dam. After this all the stresses are calculated at the base of the dam and especially at the
toe end of the dam and checked that concrete does not fail in crushing. The eccentricities
developed are kept below the minimum.

After all this we have applied the desired factor of safety which we want and then calculate all the
loads. Keeping these loads under consideration a minimum grade of concrete is decided and
enforcement detailing is done by structural engineer and the final cost of a dam is calculated.