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A bigger problem than ISIS: The Mosul Dam is failing

newyorker.com

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Re: A bigger problem than ISIS: The Mosul Dam is failing

#2
Amazing read, much longer than I generally get hooked into.

I am astonished that "Grouting" (A term i find like many in the engineering word makes a possibly questionable practice sound like a good idea) is a functional, let alone acceptable solution, I can only begin to imagine what the ground under that dam must look like after the last 20+ years of concrete being poured into it.

Re: A bigger problem than ISIS: The Mosul Dam is failing

#3
> Kurdish officials intended to shut down the turbines, but American officials told them that this would add more water to the reservoir, making the dam more likely to burst. So isis continued to profit from the dam. “We wanted to strangle them, but we weren’t allowed,” a Kurdish official told me.

Not that destroying infrastructure and killing the power to a city of civilians, despite ISIS control, is necessarily a good idea, but could they not just cut the lines?

Re: A bigger problem than ISIS: The Mosul Dam is failing

#5
post #3

> Kurdish officials intended to shut down the turbines, but American officials told them that this would add more water to the reservoir, making the dam more likely to burst. So isis continued to profit from the dam. “We wanted to strangle them, but we weren’t allowed,” a Kurdish official told me. Not that destroying infrastructure and killing the power to a city of civilians, despite ISIS control, is necessarily a g…

Probably lack of sufficient dump load.

Re: A bigger problem than ISIS: The Mosul Dam is failing

#7

The caption of a picture says the reservoir holds 11 billion cubic FEET, but the article earlier says METERS. That's a magnitude of difference.

According to Wikipedia, 11B cubic meters is the correct total capacity, with 8B cubic meters being the active capacity. Meaning, they try to keep it at 8B m^3, with 3B m^3 of flood-control capacity.

Re: A bigger problem than ISIS: The Mosul Dam is failing

#8
post #2

Amazing read, much longer than I generally get hooked into. I am astonished that "Grouting" (A term i find like many in the engineering word makes a possibly questionable practice sound like a good idea) is a functional, let alone acceptable solution, I can only begin to imagine what the ground under that dam must look like after the last 20+ years of concrete being poured into it.

One of the first steps in many building foundations is injecting concrete into the soil, typically in the form of pillars.

Desperate times probably call for desperate solutions in this case.

Re: A bigger problem than ISIS: The Mosul Dam is failing

#9
post #8
post #2

Amazing read, much longer than I generally get hooked into. I am astonished that "Grouting" (A term i find like many in the engineering word makes a possibly questionable practice sound like a good idea) is a functional, let alone acceptable solution, I can only begin to imagine what the ground under that dam must look like after the last 20+ years of concrete being poured into it.

One of the first steps in many building foundations is injecting concrete into the soil, typically in the form of pillars. Desperate times probably call for desperate solutions in this case.

Interesting, is there any work done to first evacuate the area of soil or is it simply pushed out of the way using pressure from the concrete?
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