HIGH PRESSURE SEEPAGE AT ARAPUNI DAM, NEW ZEALAND

A CASE HISTORY OF EXPLORATION & REMEDIATION

Presented by: Saravanan. S (2010CEU3304)

THE DAM

Arapuni dam is 64 m high curved concrete gravity dam with a crest length of 94 m.

Arapuni Dam forms Reservoir for 186 MW Power Station located on Waikato River, 55 km upstream of Hamilton City in North Island of New Zealand.

The Dam Construction was started in 1924 and lake filling was completed in 1928.

The Arapuni Power Station is owned and operated by Mighty

River Power Ltd., a State owned electricity generation company.

THE CUT OFF PROVISIONS

Original features of the dam include concrete cutoff walls and a

network

of

porous

(no-fines)

concrete

drains

at

the

dam/foundation interface (the under drain).

The original cutoff walls extend beneath the dam to a depth of 65m below the dam crest and extend 20m and 33m into the left and right abutments respectively, for the full height of the dam.

There

was

no

grout

curtain

constructed

during

Dam

construction.

GROUTING AND DRAINAGE PROVISIONS FOR FOUNDATIONS

Consolidation Grouting - For filling up the joints, cracks, crevices etc. and there by making the foundation homogeneous.

GROUTING AND DRAINAGE PROVISIONS FOR FOUNDATIONS

Curtain Grouting - For making a curtain to cutoff/ minimize

seepage

GROUTING AND DRAINAGE PROVISIONS FOR FOUNDATIONS

Drainage arrangements - To drain off seepage water and thus reduce uplift. Some rules in this respect are

THE DAM FOUNDATION

The dam site is in an area of multiple ignimbrite flows from volcanic eruptions over the last 2 million years.

The main dam footprint is founded on a 40-50m thick sheet of Ongatiti Ignimbrite a point-welded tuff.

The upper part of the unit is very weak, with unconfined compressive strength of between 2 and 6 MPa, while below the original dam cutoff wall the Ongatiti is considerably stronger (up to 28MPa) and identified as the hard zone.

Beneath the Ongatiti Ignimbrite, about 40m below the base of the concrete dam, are older ignimbrite deposits, identified as Pre-Ongatiti for this project.

THE DAM FOUNDATION (CONTD.)

At interfaces between ignimbrite sheets there tends to be

unwelded material, either airfall tephras or unwelded

ignimbrite.

The most extensive interface deposit is between the Ahuroa and Ongatiti ignimbrite units, known as the Powerhouse Sediments with a thickness of 4 to 8m.

THE DAM FOUNDATION (CONTD.)

THE CUT OFF PROVISIONS (CONTD.)

THE CUT OFF PROVISIONS (CONTD.)

THE SEEPAGE PROBLEM

Following lake filling and in the first 2 years of operation, there was considerable leakage from the reservoir both from the dam drains and from springs in the downstream rock. Flows typically varied between 2200 liters/min and 4200 liters/min.

In May 1929, a large crack opened in the headrace channel due to that the Lake was lowered. The lake was not refilled until April 1932 while the headrace was lined.

During this time a single row cement grout curtain was

constructed along the full length of the dam and both abutment cutoff walls.

THE GROUT CURTAIN

THE SEEPAGE PROBLEM (CONTD.)

After refilling the reservoir in 1932, leakage flows had been reduced to 420 liters/min.

In the period 1932 to 1943, the records indicate that there were
several instances of sudden flow increases and a number of holes on the right abutment were injected with hot bitumen

grout.

From 1943 to 1950 leakage was typically about 750 liters/min but this declined to about 75 liters/min by 1950.

Leakage flows of about 75 liters/min were typical through the period 1950 to 1995.

THE SEEPAGE PROBLEM (CONTD.)

In 1995 the dam toe area was cleaned up and seepage monitoring arrangements rejuvenated.

at this time, eight holes were drilled into the dam foundation to explore seepage conditions.

Two of these holes, referred to as OP05 and OP06,

encountered high water pressures at discrete depths and

each flowed at several hundred liters per minute after drilling.

It is now evident that the various grouting works only filled

voids where the vertical drill holes connected to open voids

in vertical joints, leaving other leakage paths open.

DETECTION OF HIGH PRESSURE SEEPAGE

Hole OP05 was subsequently used to measure the pressure in the feature and hole OP06 was used as a relief well.

With OP06 flow shutoff, the pressure in the feature in 1995 was about RL 97 m, 14 m below reservoir level. With

OP06 flowing at about 380 liters/min, the feature pressure

dropped to RL 87 m.

OP05 and OP06 pressure and flow were included in the

monthly dam surveillance monitoring program thereafter.

INVESTIGATION

TO LOCATE THE FEATURE

GROUTING THE FEATURE

When sharply rising pressures were identified in OP05 in September 2000, a possible mitigation measure was to attempt to grout the feature using OP05 and OP06.

There were two main concerns with this concept. First, little was known about the nature of the flow paths within the foundation and so the grouting operation and its effectiveness would be very uncertain.

The high grouting pressures necessary to inject grout through

OP05 and OP06 could blow out the infill and so significantly
increase flow rates.

GROUTING THE FEATURE (CONTD.)

Grouting took 12.5 hours during which 11.5 cubic meters of grout was placed.

At the start of grouting, relief well discharge was transferred to the most upstream well so that grout being injected at the downstream end was in still water.

After about 2.5 hours, grout was detected at the relief well. The relief well was closed after 6 hours and a further 4.4 cubic meters of grout was injected to refusal at 8 bar. Minor modifications were made to the mix during injection in response to the field observations.

VERIFICATION OF GROUT EFFECTIVENESS

The immediate response to grouting was that drainage flows from the dam drains dropped from a total of 600 to 50 liters/min.

UPGRADING THE DAM FOUNDATION

The assessment process following fracture grouting in 2001 identified two key issues relating to the fissure systems:

The presence of highly erodible joint infill in the dam foundation that is vulnerable to piping erosion.

The presence of near-lake pressure in areas under the dam

due to open fractures hydraulically connected to the reservoir.

Mighty River Power committed to upgrading the dam foundation seepage control measures so that the risk of

further piping incidents would become extremely low and high

pressures under the dam would be controlled.

LONG TERM SOLUTION

A comprehensive investigation took place to determine the extent of foundation features requiring treatment to prevent further incidents from developing.

A targeted and cost effective fix involving drilling and concreting overlapping vertical piles from the dam crest through the dam and underlying rock formation to a total depth of 90m was selected to form four separate permanent cutoff walls at selected locations beneath the dam.

LONG TERM SOLUTION (CONTD.)

LONG TERM SOLUTION (CONTD.)

LONG TERM SOLUTION (CONTD.)

An international Alliance between the dam owner

(assisted by their designer) and a contracting consortium

was formed to identify cut-off options, develop them and implement the selected methodology.

Construction

of

the

cutoff

walls

commenced

in

September 2005 and was completed in mid 2007. Operation of the reservoir has not been affected and electricity generation has continued during the project works.

CONCLUSION

Arapuni Dam has had a history of foundation seepage incidents since first filling in 1927. The most recent leak was sealed in an emergency grouting operation in 2001. The dams owner, Mighty River Power Ltd, has undertaken a dam foundation enhancement project to prevent future leakage incidents from occurring. The cutoff walls consist of overlapping 400mm diameter holes drilled through the dam and underlying ignimbrite sheet with a full reservoir. The construction technique required for 90m deep cutoff walls significantly extends international overlapping / secant pile technology. Construction was undertaken with close monitoring of the dam foundation to ensure that the construction activities did not generate another leak requiring emergency action and to ensure that the dams safety was not compromised.

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