New Development of Dam Construction Technology in China

Abstract

With the development of economy and society in China, the water conservancy and hydropower has made rapid development in recent years; construction of reservoir dam has obtained great progress, a number of the reservoir dams have been built with functions of flood control, water supply, irrigation, power generation, shipping and ecology conservation. Meanwhile, the damming technology also made some important breakthroughs, such as CSG (Cemented Sand and Gravel) and RFC (rock filled concrete), as well as new materials, new technology and new methods for intelligent dam. New technologies above have been widely used in dam engineering, and many milestones of dam construction have experienced, such as completion of dam over 100m, 200m and 300m in height. The highest arch dam, concrete face rock-fill dam and roller compacted concrete dam in the world have been successively built in China, especially, a number of world-class water conservancy & hydropower engineering with complex technologies, such as Three Gorges, Xiaowan, Jinping, Xiluodu and Xiangjiaba, have been built and put into operation, marking China's damming technology ranked in the international advanced level. The construction of reservoir dam in China has played an important role in the development of economy and society as well as energy security and ecological security. The dam technology innovation is promised due to development of information, digital and intelligent technologies. For all aspects of dam construction and management, the digital, internet and automatic control technologies with perception, simulation, analysis, early warning and decision focused, have been utilized to improve the accuracy of construction management, and enhance the dam construction and management level.