Concrete Dams Department

The Concrete Dams Department is one of the 10 Department units of LNEC. The Department was included in LNEC’s organisation structure in 1961 and it has a more than 40-year old history, throughout which the Department’s capabilities have been consolidated and updated.

The main areas that are part of the present organisation of the Concrete Dams Department, which is particularly devoted to the study of the performance of large concrete dams and appurtenant underground works, are as follows: characterising the structural properties of the body of those works and their foundation rock masses, as well as the main actions operating on them; studying the performance of dams, using models; and their safety control in the construction and operation stages. Those intervention areas have been represented by the development of the Department’s capabilities, particularly in the aspects as follows: field studies and characterisation of rock masses (development of Rock Mechanics); preparation of structural analysis models, both experimental and mathematical (development of scale models and finite element models); as well as instrumentation and methodologies for monitoring and interpreting the performance (development of the observation of works).

The Concrete Dams Department comprises the Divisions as follows, in accordance with their type of activity:

Numerical and Physical Modelling Division, devoted to developing and analysing mathematical and physical models for studies of simulation or interpretation of the performance of works.

Foundations and Underground Works Division, mainly devoted to characterising the structural properties and actions on rock masses and foundations.

Monitoring Division, devoted to observing, interpreting and analysing the performance of works.

Applied Geodesy Division, devoted to observing the performance of dams and other engineering works by geodetic means.

Similarly to the creation and development of LNEC, both the initiative and the determination of Mr. Manuel Rocha are at the basis of the development, in Portugal, of Dam Engineering. In fact, ever since the beginning, the co-operation of two world renowned Dam Engineering experts, who were, successively, heads of the former Dams Services, has been of the utmost importance for the creation of the present Concrete Dams Department: Joaquim Laginha Serafim and António Ferreira da Silveira.

José Antero Senra Vieira de Lemos (Head of the Concrete Dams Department)

Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil, I.P. Departamento de Barragens de Betão AV DO BRASIL 101 1700-066 LISBOA PORTUGAL phone: +351 218 443 369 fax: +351 218 443 026 e-mail: dbb@lnec.pt

The Organization Chart of the Concrete Dams Department is divided into four Divisions::