Abstract:
The safety control of large dams requires the measurement of
some important quantities that characterize their behavior
(like absolute and relative displacements, strains and stresses
in the concrete, discharges through the foundation, etc.) and
on visual inspections of the structures. In the more important
dams, the analysis of the measured data and their comparison
with results of mathematical or physical models is
determinant in the safety control decision process.
The quality of the measurements assumes an important role in
a dam’s safety assessment, namely in the detection of
anomalous behavior related either to accident scenarios or to
more delayed deterioration processes. In monitoring system
devices operated manually, this quality depends on the order
of magnitude of the measured quantity, on the technical
characteristics of the measurement device and on the skills of
the operator.
This paper deals with the study of the direct influence of these
factors on the quality of the monitoring system exploitation
and indirectly on the global dam safety control process. The
results of an analysis of the repeatability and reproducibility
of measurements in a concrete dam are presented, allowing us
to estimate the overall measurement error.
