Feb. 24, 2025
Dams serve a variety of functions and provide numerous benefits to local areas and industry. They are primarily used to store water, control flooding and generate electricity. Many dams serve to store water to function as standing lakes. In general, dams provide various advantages for communities but still other disadvantages.
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In general, dams are important structures that are constructed for the purpose of water storage. The water held by dams, generally from a channel, can later be used for generating electricity and used for irrigation purposes. Dams are also critical in flood control.
One of the most well known dams, Hoover Dam, was constructed to provide irrigation water to local communities as well as to control floods and generate hydroelectricity. The federal government authorized construction of Hoover Dam, which spans 30 miles across the Nevada-Arizona border. Its large structure depicts the various advantages that dams have for local areas.
A dam is a structure commonly built across a river or stream to create a large reservoir behind it. There are various types of dam spillways and operational dam gates that help control the flow of water.
With dam engineering there are different categories to consider for construction including structural type, usage and materials required. Construction of dams is complex. Dam projects require substantial labor, materials, and other resources. Knowing how dams work can provide clarity to how they're constructed. Steps take to build dams include:
Dams are advantageous in many ways. In engineering, dams function to store vast amounts of water in flooding and even for recreational purposes.
Many other factors to consider when weighing the advantages of dams include: improved health and life by supplying clean water, improved quality of sanitation, increased food (crop & fish) production, irrigation supply, protection of lives and goods from flooding, generation of electricity, tailings of mines and controlling the debris as well as the recreation and environmental benefits of the reservoirs.
As a water source, dams have many advantages and applications. The application of dams can include cooking, cleaning, bathing, washing, drinking water, farming and for other cultivation purposes.
When there's excess flow of water, dams help by storing water in reservoirs. Dams also function to release water during times of low flow when natural streams are inadequate to meet demands. All purposes are kept in mind when constructing dams. Some functions of dams can include:
Dams help crops and plants through evapotranspiration. With large quantities of water stored in dams, they can be easily used for irrigation. This helps communities plan farming and nurturing crops accordingly, further enhancing food supply.
Some examples of dams used for irrigation include Burrinjuck Dam in Australia.
A portion of water storage in dams and reservoirs is supplied for drinking, municipal and industrial purposes. After water treatment, it can be used for drinking. This can help ensure that people are drinking pure water, preventing diseases like cholera.
An example dam used for drinking water supply is also in Australia known as Warragamba.
One of the staples of dams and major industry advantages is dam usage in hydropower and electrical generation. There are several environmental advantages of hydroelectric power including its flexibility, affordability, and the perks of being a renewable resource.
Once constructed, a dam can generate constant electricity. There's no fuel requirements to produce this electricity. Dams used in hydropower also last longer than thermal power plants. The resource is renewable given that it can be used repeatedly downstream for power generation. Hydropower can be stored or diverted and is one of the most eco-friendly means of producing power. One example of this is the 103,800 megawatts of electricity produced by dams in the United States alone. Itaipu Dam is a hydropower site in Brazil with one of the world's largest productions of power.
As mentioned previously, during flood seasons, dams can be used to control the flow of water by either reducing floods to help manage wash aways. It can also reduce congestion of water.
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In the United States, flood zones in Tennessee, southern Ohio, and the lower Mississippi Rivers are controlled by Tennessee Valley Authority dams.
Reservoirs have many beneficial features including the most pronounced of being a source of water storage. Upstream water ponds can be used for fish farms, further reducing damage to fish habitats during dam construction.
One of the major advantages of dams is their eco-friendly features. Because dams use a renewable resource, they help to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide. Additionally, tailing dams help protect the environment from toxic mining wastes.
Dams can also serve as a recreational activity. Several dams throughout the United States are known to provide an area for boating, skiing, campaign, picnics, and boat launches.
Dams are classified according to the type of construction material being used, the slope or cross-section of the dam, and the way the dam resists the forces of the water pressure behind it, the means used for controlling seepage, and what the dam's purpose may be. There are various types of dams to consider and the advantages of each.
A study that evaluated the use of a material processing technology on stainless steel has shown that the steel resists erosion more than three times better than its unprocessed counterpart.
That finding is good news for sectors such as the hydropower industry, where cavitation erosion results in material loss in turbines and other components made from steel. Severe cavitation erosion disrupts dam operations, requiring shutdown and repair and resulting in lost revenue.
Results of the evaluation, performed by a team of PNNL materials scientists, were published in the journal Applied Surface Science.
For the study, the PNNL team evaluated 304/304L stainless-steel plates. Known for its high strength and excellent resistance to corrosion, 304/304L stainless steel is commonly used in many industries, such as chemical processing, food and beverage processing, and power generation such as hydropower operations.
First, the team used friction stir processing tools at PNNL to modify the stainless steel. With friction stir processing, a rotating tool plunges into the material, creating 'friction' between the tool and the metal that results in localized heating as the tool moves along a path across the material. The uniqueness of this processing is that the heat input generated during processing can be well controlled by manipulating power. The resultant controlled heat softens the material, significantly enhancing properties, such as refining the material's grains'tiny crystals that make up the metal'making it stronger or more flexible.
'Temperature plays a significant role in friction stir processing and can directly affect the properties of the material,' said Hellen Jiang, a PNNL materials scientist who co-led the evaluation. 'The ability to control temperature increases material quality and repeatability of the processing, and we gain a better understanding of processing parameters and properties.'
She added, 'In this study, we were able to consistently monitor and control the temperature throughout the friction stir processing using a temperature control algorithm and obtained materials processed at different temperatures'specifically 800oC and 740oC.'
Once the samples were processed, they were sent to a test facility where they were placed in conditions that would induce cavitation erosion in the material. Inducing the erosion was performed against an industry standard'ASTM G134'the first time cavitation testing of friction stir-processed specimens was performed to this standard. Using this standard, the testing conditions are more realistic compared to other methods, and it takes significantly less time to perform testing compared to real water flow.
The team then evaluated the samples using microscopy. They discovered that friction stir processing led to significant improvement in cavitation erosion resistance over unprocessed plates, and different processing temperatures resulted in different properties. Specifically, they found that grain size within the material decreased when the temperature was adjusted from 800oC to 740oC'which actually increases the material's strength and resistance to cavitation erosion. This indicates that controlling heat input and processing temperature is beneficial for boosting resistance to cavitation erosion.
This finding has significant implications for the hydropower industry, including providing reliable and sustainable repair and manufacturing of hydraulic components like runner blades, wicket gates, and guided vanes. Improved cavitation erosion resistance has the ability to directly boost power generation efficiency and survival rates of fish passing the dam.
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