Specialist Technical Studies
Specialist studies to understand and improve your dam’s safety
We conduct the specialized studies needed to characterize loading conditions, understand the behavior of the dam–reservoir system, and assess its potential consequences. We provide these as standalone studies or integrate them into other safety documents, contributing the technical knowledge needed to support safety assessments and decision-making.
Hydrological studies
We characterise hydrological loading through the analysis of rainfall, flows and extreme floods, developing hydrological models and estimates of reservoir inflow floods. These studies incorporate climate change using projections from reference climate models, allowing us to assess how floods may evolve in the future and how these changes in loading conditions could affect dam safety.
Hydraulic studies
We analyse the hydraulic performance of spillways, bottom outlets, intakes and energy dissipation structures, verifying their capacity under different loading conditions and using three-dimensional models (CFD) in more complex cases.
Downstream, we develop one-dimensional and two-dimensional models to simulate the propagation of floods, outlet discharges and dam-break waves, delineating inundation areas and estimating water depths, velocities and arrival times. This information is essential for dam classification, emergency action plans and consequence assessments.
Dam-Break Studies
We estimate breach formation and development and the resulting dam-break hydrograph, considering the dam type, failure mode and reservoir conditions. We then simulate downstream dam-break wave propagation using advanced hydraulic models. These analyses characterise inundation extent, water depths, velocities, arrival times, hazard levels and wave evolution over time, providing the basis for consequence assessments, dam classification and emergency planning.
Consequence Assessment
We analyse the potential consequences of different scenarios, considering the exposed population, potential loss of life, economic damage, critical infrastructure, environmental effects and other relevant impacts. These results underpin dam classification, emergency planning and decisions concerning dam safety.
Numerical Modelling
We develop advanced numerical models to study the behaviour of embankment dams, concrete dams and their foundations under different loading conditions. We apply structural and geotechnical analyses to investigate deformation, stability, seepage, dam–foundation interaction, seismic behaviour and response to exceptional conditions, among other aspects.
These models improve our understanding of the physical mechanisms that could lead to a failure mode and reduce uncertainties relevant to dam safety assessment.
We develop hybrid models that combine numerical simulation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to interpret and predict dam behavior. These models integrate the system’s physical representation with historical data to analyze displacements, stresses, temperatures, and joint openings, and identify anomalies. This approach captures nonlinear relationships and improves predictions of structural response under different loading conditions and future scenarios, even when monitoring data is limited.
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