ABSTRACT
In dam design it is the crest datum which often becomes the first quantity to determine; it is found from the datum for normal and back-water level in the reservoir, and also from computations of wind waves and construction properties of dam crest. Deformations of diaphragms or screens are controlled by the flexibility of dam body and can be computed by the same design methods and schemes which are used for earth dams with water-confining components of earth materials (finite element method etc). In earth dams which confine reservoirs with highly toxic wastewater, screens and diaphragm are connected with an upstream puddle blanket, which sometimes covers completely the bottom of a reservoir and prevents percolation of harmful solutions into ground. Considerable attention must be paid to field investigations under operation of earth dams in the Far North. The processes of heat and mass transfer in earth-rockfill dams are very complex because the dam foundation and body are complex multi-phase media.
