Clay concrete wall

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A clay concrete wall is a thin sealing wall made of clay concrete on dams . It is located as an additional sealing element in the core of an embankment.

In the case of stone embankments, embankments of boulders on the outer flanks ensure stability, while the core, which is mostly made of clay , ensures watertightness. Since the core material can be very heterogeneous and brittle in places, a clay concrete wall is often built in as an additional safety measure while the core is being poured. This concrete must show a deformation behavior similar to that of the core material in order not to break in the event of subsidence and expansion inside the dam.

The clay concrete wall is usually poured without formwork and reinforcement . For this purpose, several layers (about three) of the core material are poured and compacted up to a height of about 1.20 m, in order to then dig an about 0.60 m wide slot over the lamella of the concrete wall made in the previous cycle. Before the trench is filled with concrete, its air-side wall is provided with filter fleece . This holds back suspended matter in the event of seepage, which can then seal the leak.

Germany's largest dam, namely the rock embankment dam of the Frauenau drinking water dam , has a clay concrete wall in its middle for sealing.