SPECIAL ISSUE OF SOILS AND FOUNDATIONS 273-281, Jan.

1996
Japanese Geotechnical Society

EFFECTS ON DAMS

i)
NORIHISA MATSUMOTO , AKIRA NAKAMURAii), TAKASHI SASAKIiii)
and TOMOYA IWASHITAM

ABSTRACT

Immediately after the earthquake, emergency inspections of dams were carried out in a wide area around the
epicenter, and Public Works Research Institute made inspection visits to dam sites to investigate the e45ffects
on the
dams. Their results are reported in this report. Emergency inspections and investigation by PWRI confirmed that
there was no major damage to dams, excluding some slight effects, nor other problems seriously affecting dam safety
or requiring immediate protective countermeasures.
Meanwhile many acceleration records were obtained at dam foundations, and they are also showed in this report.

Key words: dam, earthquake, measurement, site investigation (IGC: H4/ C7)

Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) recorded a seismic

INTRODUCTION
About 50 dams exist within 50 km from the epicenter
of this event. Most of them are constructed on rock foun-
dations, and some of the old earthfill dams on hard soils,
and designed using the seismic coefficient method or the
pseudo-static method. Some dams in Kobe City are very
old, e.g., Gohonmatsu Dam was built in 1900 and is the
first concrete gravity dam (rubble masonry structure)
built in Japan. Dams near the earthquake fault were
shaken strongly during the earthquake. The nearest dam
is located as close as 800 m to the Nojima Fault. Dam
managers, therefore, inspected dams within about 200
km of the epicenter, just after the main shock, and en-
gineers of the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI)
investigated effects on dams in this region. This report
presents the findings and comments. In this paper, a dam
is defined as a structure with a height of more than 15 m.
event of intensity 4 or greater, under the MOC's direc-
tive. The emergency inspection consisted of two stages: a
primary and a secondary inspection. The former was a
visual inspection of the condition of the dam immedi-
ately after the shock, while the latter included both a de-
tailed visual inspection of the exterior of the dam and
checking of data recorded by instrumentation. Emergen-
cy inspections after the Hyogoken-Nambu earthquake
were conducted at a total of 251 dams. Figure 1 shows
the location of emergency-inspected dams. Table 1
presents a breakdown of these dams by district, and Ta-
ble 2 by type of dam.
The emergency inspections (primary and secondary in-
spections) of all the dams were completed by January 21,
and no damage requiring emergency protective counter-
measures was reported. Some slight effects on dams-

Table 1. Number of emergency-inspected dams in each district

EMERGENCY INSPECTION
Emergency inspections were carried out just after the
earthquake by dam managers at dam locations under the
jurisdiction of the Ministry of Construction (MOC) and
dams owned by other water utility institutions within the
river reaches administered under the River Law. The
emergency inspections were conducted at each dam
which recorded an acceleration equal to or greater than
25 gal and at all dams where the nearest station of the

i)
Former Director of Dam Dept., Public Works Research Institute, Ministry of Construction Asahi 1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305.
ii)
Head of Fill Dam Division, Dam Dept., ditto.
iii)
Research Engineer, Dam Structure Division, ditto.
iv)
Research Engineer, Fill Dam Division, ditto.
Manuscript was received for review on August 17, 1995.
Written discussions on this paper should be submitted before August 1, 1996 to the Japanese Geotechnical Society, Sugayama Bldg. 4F,
Kanda Awaji-cho 2-23, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101, Japan. Upon request the closing date may be extended one month.

273
274 MATSUMOTO ET AL.

Fig. 1. Location of the emergency-inspected dams

Table 2. Number of emergency-inspected dams

differentiated by dam type
FOLLOW-UP INSPECTION OF DAMS
The Dam Department of PWRI dispatched teams to in-
vestigate in detail the effects of the earthquake on the
dams.
We investigated two groups of dams: those where
slight effects were reported in the emergency inspection
and dams located in the area where a seismic event of in-
tensity 5 or greater was reported. These dams are in
Hyogo, Osaka, and Kyoto Prefectures. Figure 2 shows
the locations of these dams.
Twenty-eight (28) dams were investigated, and seven
(7) of them were observed to be slightly affected by the
earthquake. Table 3 lists the dams investigated and a sum-
mary of the results for each dam. This report refers only
to dams higher than 15 m.
The detailed results of the investigations at each dam
are as follows.

Yuzuruha Dam
Yuzuruha Dam is a 42 m-high concrete gravity dam, lo-
minor cracks in the pavement on the crest of two dams cated approximately 43 km from the epicenter. Figure 3
for example- were reported. The amount of drainage shows the cross section of this dam. The emergency in-
water increased slightly at nine dams, but the total spection reported that slight spalling of the concrete on
amount was little and was stabilized later. the upstream face occurred, but our investigation rev-
 EFFECTS ON DAMS 275

Fig. 2. Location of dams investigated by PWRI

Table 3. Main features of dams investigated by PWRI and a summary of results

Dams within river reaches administered under the River Law
276 MATSUMOTO ET AL.

Dams not within river eaches administered under the River Law
 EFFECTS ON DAMS 277

ealed that some mortar installed for a surface finish, had stabilized later.
peeled off, and that no serious problem was induced (Pho-
to. 1). The drainage water from the foundation drainage Dainichigawa Dam
hole became turbid slightly after the earthquake, but the Dainichigawa Dam is a concrete gravity dam with a
turbidity disappeared in a few days. Drainage water and height of 43.5 m, located approximately 48 km from the
uplift both increased slightly after the quake, but was epicenter. Its drainage water increased slightly after the
earthquake, but was stabilized later. No effect was ob-
served on the surface of the dam body.

Tenno Dam
Tenno Dam is a 33.8 m-high concrete gravity dam, lo-
cated about 16 km from the epicenter. Figure 4 shows the
cross section of this dam. Small rock fragments fell at the
right abutment, and some at the right downstream abut-
ment. Seepage from the reservoir increased slightly after
the earthquake.

Tokiwa Dam
Tokiwa Dam is a 33.5 m-high zoned earthfill dam, lo-
cated about 10 km from the epicenter, and as close as
800 m to the Nojima Fault, which caused the earthquake,
Fig. 3. Cross section of Yuzuruha Dam (in meter) on Awaji Island. Figure 5 shows the cross section of this
dam. Transverse cracks of 25 mm wide and 7 m long
were observed at the crest pavement near both abutment
contacts (Photos. 2 and 3). Rock fragments fell down
from the right abutment, and the concrete shoulder of
the access road was cracked, but neither the upstream
nor downstream slopes of the dam body were damaged.

Photo. 1. Slight spalling of mortar on upstream surface finish of

Yuzuruha Dam Fig. 4. Cross section of Tenno Dam (in meter)

Fig. 5. Cross section of Tokiwa Dam (in meter)

278 MATSUMOTO ET AL.

Gohonmatsu Dam
Completed in 1900, Gohonmatsu Dam is a concrete
gravity dam (rubble masonry structure) located about 19
km from the epicenter. The height of this dam is 33.3 m.
Figure 6 shows the cross section of the dam. Rock frag-
ments from the left abutment fell into the spillway.
Hairline cracks were found on the capping concrete on
the crest railing, but neither cracks nor other damage
were found on the surface of the dam body.

Fukatani Dam
Fukatani Dam is a 41.0 m-high rockfill darn with an in-
clined core, located about 33 km from the epicenter.
Slight settlement was found at both embankments near
the spillway (Photo. 4), and minor transverse cracks were
Photo. 2. Cracking at the left abutment contact of Tokiwa Dam found on the crest pavement near the spillway. The con-
crete side wall of the spillway bulged out by about 3 cm.

Kitayama Dam
Located approximately 31 km from the epicenter,
Kitayama Reservoir is formed by five homogeneous
earthfill dams-Dai 1 dam (darn No. 1) to Dai 5 (No. 5).
Figure 7 shows the cross section of Dai 1 dam (dam No.
1). Dai 1 dam with a height of 24.5 m was constructed on

Photo. 3. Cracking at the right abutment contact of Tokiwa Dam

Taniyama Dam
Taniyama Dam is a 28.2 m-high zoned earthfill darn, lo-
cated about 7 km from the epicenter, and as close as 3
km to the Nojima Fault. Minor transverse cracks of 2 to Fig. 6. Cross section of Gohonmatsu Dam
3 mm wide and 4.5 m long were found at the crest pave-
ment.

Dondo Dam
Dondo Dam is a 71.5 m-high concrete gravity dam, lo-
cated about 19 km from the epicenter. The drainage
water from drainage holes increased from 2.7 to 9.4 liters
per minute, but since has decreased. No damage was ob-
served on the surface of the dam body.

Kojiya Dam
Kojiya Darn is a 44.1 m-high rockfill dam with a cen-
tral core, located about 48 km from the epicenter. The
seepage under and around the darn increased from 30 to
40 liters per minute. Rainfall might have increased the
seepage, but it has since decreased. No damage was ob-
served on the surface of the dam body.
Photo. 4. Slight settlement near the spillway of Fukatani Dam
 EFFECTS ON DAMS 279

Fig. 7. Cross section of Kitayama Dam No. 1 (in meter)

a foundation of weathered granite and the embankment peak accelerations measured at dam sites but also those
material is decomposed granite soil. A shallow sliding of at soil sites. In Fig. 10, the data points marked with white
the upstream surface of Dai 1 dam occurred, but the squares are peak accelerations measured at dam sites in
stability of the dam was not affected. the steam direction, black squares are those in the dam
axis direction, and the white circles shows those of soil
sites .1) In Fig. 11, peak vertical accelerations both for
PEAK ACCELERATIONS AT DAM FOUNDATIONS
dam sites and soil sites are compared, where dam sites are
The distribution of the peak accelerations observed at black squares and soil sites are white circles. The founda-
the dam foundation during the earthquake is shown in tions of dam sites consist of hard rock before Tertiary
Figs. 8 and 9. These values include the values obtained at period (41 dam sites: pre-Tertiary period and 5 dam sites:
the gallery under the embankment dam or at the lowest Tertiary period), whereas soil sites are of alluvial and
gallery in the concrete dam body. The attenuation of the diluvial deposits. Although no peak acceleration was
horizontal peak acceleration is shown in Fig. 10, and the measured at the dam site where the distance from the
vertical in Fig. 11. Figures 10 and 11 include not only epicenter was less than 20 km, Figs. 10 and 11 indicate

Fig. 8. Map of peak accelerations at dam foundations or lower elevation of dams (Horizontal direction component)
280 MATSUMOTO ET AL.

Fig. 9. Map of peak accelerations at dam foundations or lower elevation of dams (Vertical direction component)

Fig. 10. Attenuation of peak accelerations at dam foundations or Fig. 11. Attenuation of peak accelerations at dam foundations or
lower elevation of dams (Horizontal direction component) lower elevation of dams (Vertical direction component)

that peak accelerations at the dam sites were substantially foundation located 48 km from the epicenter and the
smaller than those at the soil sites. It means that earth- other is 32.6 m-high Gongen Dam on a rhyolite founda-
quake motions in rock sites are distinctively smaller than tion located 28 km from the epicenter. The cross section
those in soil sites. There were 2 embankment dams where of Minoogawa Dam is shown in Fig. 12, and Gongen Dal
the peak acceleration at the foundation exceeded 100 gal. 1 (No. 1) Dam in Fig. 13. At Minoogawa Dam, the peak
One is 47.0 m-high Minoogawa Dam on a sandstone acceleration in the stream direction was 135 gal at the
 EFFECTS ON DAMS 281

Fig. 12. Cross section of Minoogawa Dam (in meter)

Fig. 13. Cross section of Gongen Dam (in meter)

foundation, and 242 gal at the dam crest. In Gongen which dams were constructed, were relatively small com-
Dam, the peak acceleration in the stream direction was pared with soil sites. It is one of the reason why dams
105 gal at the foundation, and 220 gal at the dam crest. were safe during the earthquake. Careful investigation be-
The response amplification of the two dams was about 2. fore construction, careful design and high-quality con-
struction were also impotant factors to ensure the safety
of dams.
CONCLUSIONS

The emergency inspections by dam managers and dam

REFERENCE
investigations undertaken PWRI engineers confirmed
that there was no serious damage affecting dam safety or 1) Committee for investigation on the damage of highway bridges
caused by the Hyogoken-Nambu Earthquake (1995): "Interim
requiring immediate protective countermeasures, exclud-
report on the damage of highway bridges by the Hyogoken-Nambu
ing some slight effects. Earthquake," (in Japanese).
The earthquake motions at rock foundations, upon