National Geographic: Big,Bigger,Biggest:Dam

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that is situated in China and it spans the
Yangtze River. The dam is 2 kilo-meters in length and 60 story high. The construction of the
dam consists of 5000 workers and it lasted for 21 months. Moreover, the project is 2 years
ahead of time and ahead of its budget. The Three Gorges Dam adapts the concept of
different dams – The Debdon Dam which produces 4kW, the Mareges Dam which
produces 128 MW, the Hoover Dam which produces 1345 MW of power, the Grand
Coulee Dam which produces 2000 MW, the Krasnoyarsk Dam which produces 6000 MW.
The first hydroelectric dam was invented by Lord Armstrong in 1800’s. The concept of
Michael Faraday in which a coil spins in a magnet it will produce electricity. In that way,
Lord Armstrong applied that concept and he created a dam. He connected a water
pipe on a stream and then a machine called Thompson Vortex Turbine was used to
produce electricity. This concept was used in Three Gorges Dam. The dam is consisting
of 32 generators and it can power up the needs of 60 million Chinese. The first challenge
in creating a dam is the diversion of the stream. Just like the concept in Debdon dam,
they used coffer dams to divert rivers and then they will be able to build a dam between
the two coffer dams. The authorities in China relocated about 100 million people and
they built a new house for them. For the Hoover Dam, it was build using blocks of concrete
piled up like Lego blocks. This is to avoid the heating of concrete inside. The problem in
pouring concrete is that heat will get hotter and hotter and then cracks will appear. What
they did in Three Gorges Dam is that they used every possible idea. The Three Gorges
Dam used 10 times more concrete than the Hoover dam. So, engineers came up with an
idea to cool up aggregates, put ice on the concrete, they everything the could just to
keep the concrete cold. For the Grand Coulee Dam, its concept is to protect the dam
from flood. Flood is one of the problems in dams. Dams are weaker when water overflows.
Moreover, dams will become vulnerable and it will weaken its foundation. Furthermore,
the concept of Grand Coulee dam is that they created a concrete ram at the bottom
of the dam to dissipate the force created by the overflowing flood. This concept is
adapted by the Three Gorges Dam, every spillway was inserted by ram. Water will be put
airborne and it will not create any damage as it goes down. For the Krasnoyarsk Dam,
the concept was used to cater ships that is passing by the dam. The Krasnoyarsk Dam
used a steel trough that is big enough to carry ships. It will move the ship up to the top of
the dam and it will pivot and it will move down to other side of the dam. For the Three
Gorges Dam, they used ship lift, just like an elevator, it can carry about 3000 tons. The
Three Gorges Dam was created to control the flood and it is the largest hydroelectric
dam ever built.

Reference:

officiallor9. (2014). National Geographic: Big,Bigger,Biggest:Dam S02E08. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3J196bLP5E&feature=youtu.be