CFR dam

The CFR dam, or CFRD for short , is a special design of dams . The abbreviation stands for the English designation Concrete Faced Rockfill Dam, which can be translated as “rock fill dam with concrete cover”.

Construction and manufacture

A CFR dam is first made from a coarse rock fill (rockfill dam) . This is followed on the water side of the casting embankment of the dam of concrete shell (concrete face) . The concrete surface produced in vertical strips is only given light steel reinforcement to prevent cracks ("crack reinforcement"). The strips can be up to 15 m wide and are concreted in one piece with the help of sliding formwork from the foot to the crown of the dam, which keeps the number of joints as low as possible. The unavoidable, vertical joints between the concrete strips are sealed with waterstops. Therefor comes z. B. rubber or a corrosion-resistant metal such as copper, are used.

For the watertight connection of the concrete shell to the underground sealing of the future reservoir, CFR dams are equipped with a hearth wall made of reinforced concrete and usually also equipped with inspection corridors for maintenance and checking of the sealing.

Origin and development

The origin of the CFRD principle lies in the Californian gold rush , when gold prospectors built embankments with wooden planks as seals to divert water. The wood was later replaced by concrete when the concept was applied to irrigation and hydropower systems. The US civil engineer J. Barry Cooke is considered to be the driving force behind the development of modern CFRDs .

Large-scale construction of CFR dams began in the 1960s. The bulk material was compacted to increase stability and the concrete seal was made for the first time in vertical strips, i.e. without horizontal joints. In the following decades the CFRD construction became more and more popular. In China in particular, large CFR dams have been and are being built.

The Shuibuya Dam in China , which was completed in 2008 and is 233 m high, is currently the largest CFR dam. The Changheba Dam , which is currently under construction , also in China, will be seven meters taller than the Shuibuya Dam at 240 m after completion.

List of the largest CFR dams

The list takes into account all CFR dams with a height of over 150 m.

dam	height	country	Use since
Changheba	240 m	People's Republic of China	under construction
Shuibuya	233 m	People's Republic of China	2008
Tasang	228 m	Myanmar	under construction
Jiangpinghe	221 m	People's Republic of China	2010
La Yesca	210 m	Mexico	2012
Bakun	207 m	Malaysia	2011
Campos Novos	202 m	Brazil	2006
Kárahnjúkavirkjun	196 m	Iceland	2007
El Cajon	189 m	Mexico	2007
Aguamilpa	187 m	Mexico	1993
Sanbanxi	186 m	People's Republic of China	2006
Barra Grande	185 m	Brazil	2006
Paute-Mazar	185 m	Ecuador	2010
Hongjiadu	180 m	People's Republic of China	2004
Tianshengqiao	178 m	People's Republic of China	1999
Tank tight	162 m	People's Republic of China	2008
Foz do Areia	160 m	Brazil	1980
Zipingpu	158 m	People's Republic of China	2006
Malutang	156 m	People's Republic of China	2009
Bashan	155 m	People's Republic of China	2009
Jilintai	152 m	People's Republic of China	2005
Myitsone	152 m	Myanmar	under construction, currently stopped
Torul dam	152 m	Turkey	2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Theodor Strobl, Franz Zunic: Hydraulic engineering: Current bases - New developments . Springer Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-47857-7 , pp. 211 ff .
2. ↑ LAU Chau Chin, A Study on Concrete Faced Rockfill Dams, October 2004 ( pdf, 8.31 MB ), last accessed on November 24, 2011.
3. ↑ CFRD under pressure. Water Power & Dam Construction, February 29, 2008, accessed September 11, 2013 . 
4. ↑ E. Maranhà das Neves: Advances in rockfill structures, 1991, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, ISBN 0792312678 , 341 pages ( online in the Google Book Search)
5. ↑ Chinese Committee on Large Dams: Shuibuya ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on October 18, 2011 (pdf, 427 kB) (with photo, site plan, technical data and cross-sectional drawing)