THE QUALITY CONTROL OF A ROCKFILL DAM CONSTRUCTION (MASJED-SOLYMAN DAM; IRAN

The quality control of various zones in earth-rock dam during construction stage, have important role for satisfying the requirements and hypothesis of design. The 177 m height Masjed- Soleyman zoned rockfill dam was constructed in South–West of Iran on Karun river. For evaluation of construction quality of this dam many tests were performed during construction. These tests include: field density and gradation tests in large and small scale, Atterberg limits, moisture content, specific gravity, permeability, abrasion, soundness and other tests for rockfill, filters and core materials. In this paper, comprehensive statistical study on the results of some of these test are presented. For this study, some statistical parameters such as average, maximum, minimum, standard deviation and skewness values were calculated for various index or properties of all zones of dam and relative graph drawn. According to the results of this study, the gradation of fine and coarse filter materials satisfy filter criteria with consideration to the gradation curve of base soil; despite of some deviation to the finer limit in gradation of rockfill materials from specified limits in design stage, these materials have remained free – draining after compaction. The core material (CL) has been compacted with very good degree of compaction in wet side of optimum point. Based on the statistical studies and engineer judgments, in general, the dam body has been constructed with modern methods and good degree of accuracy.