Geophysical methods contributing to the testing of concrete dams. Application at the Marathon Dam

Geophysical investigations were conducted at the Marathon Dam site near Athens, Greece, in order to detect possible degraded areas that are potentially liable to water infiltration or leakage, and to evaluate the dynamic properties of the subsurface materials. The investigations were also extended i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied geophysics 2002-06, Vol.50 (3), p.247-260
Main Authors: Karastathis, V.K, Karmis, P.N, Drakatos, G, Stavrakakis, G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Concrete
Dams
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Electrical method
Engineering
Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics
Engineering geology
Exact sciences and technology
GPR
Seismic methods
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Geophysical investigations were conducted at the Marathon Dam site near Athens, Greece, in order to detect possible degraded areas that are potentially liable to water infiltration or leakage, and to evaluate the dynamic properties of the subsurface materials. The investigations were also extended in the dam interior in order to evaluate the quality of the concrete. This survey was necessary because the dam was hit by a strong (Ms=5.9) earthquake in 1999. The methods implemented included geoelectrical, seismic and GPR techniques. The potential of seismic methods to assess the dynamic properties of the material, the great dependence of electrical methods on the moisture content and the high resolving power of GPR in recognizing local structure anomalies proved to be the main contributing factors to the proper evaluation of the dam. The geophysical techniques also indicated a few suspicious parts in the dam that warrant close inspection by specialist engineers.
ISSN:0926-9851
1879-1859
DOI:10.1016/S0926-9851(02)00145-3