Reliability and Performance of Inflatable Dams

In recent years, inflatable dam technology has significantly advanced and has become an economical solution for installing new and replacing old spillway crest gates up to 18 feet high. The hydraulic and environmental advantages of inflatable dams have also made them an attractive solution for constructing new and replacing old run of the river low-head gravity dams. In the United States, over 200 inflatable dams have been installed since 1980, and the rate of their use on dam projects is increasing rapidly. Since 1970, four different types of inflatable dam have been used in the United States: Firestone Fabridam, Sumitomo Summigate, Bridgestone Rubber Dams, and Obermeyer Hydro Inflatable Gates. Currently only Bridgestone Rubber Dams and Obermeyer Hydro Inflatable Gates are being used on new projects. Both of these inflatable dam types are being installed in a wide variety of conditions, configurations, and environments. Very little has been published on the reliability and performance of inflatable dams; in part due to their fairly recent introduction to the dam engineering community. With over 2,000 inflatable dams in service world wide, and over 10,000 years of collective service experience, there is now a basis for evaluating the general performance of this technology. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief summary of the history and recent advances in inflatable dam technology, and to discuss the performance and reliability of inflatable dams. Ongoing research and testing of inflatable dams will also be discussed. 13 pp., 1 table, 9 figures, 8 references.