Guidelines for the safety assessment of concrete dams

Dams are with respect to the engineering building standards particular structures which require specific regulations for safety verification. In Austria, guidelines for the assessment of the structural safety of concrete dams have been established by the Austrian Commission on Dams, which is a group of renowned experts advising the Ministry for Stainability and Tourism. The guidelines apply for dams higher than 15 m above foundation level or impounding reservoirs with a capacity of more than 500,000 m³. It also applies for smaller constructions, if they imply considerable risks. The present article deals with the basic specifications of these guidelines.The formalism for safety assessment and the terminology as e. g. design situations, limit states and partial safety factors have been adopted from the Eurocode. The specifications of the guidelines comprise the actions on the structures, the design situations to be considered, the resistances (strengths) and the mandatory verifications for gravity dams and for arch dams. Indicative values are given for the strength of construction joints and the concrete-rock interface. Some sections include also the specifications in other countries for comparison.