Monitoring Vattenfall's test facility
Cautus Geo monitors Swedish Vattenfall's test facility in Älvkarleby, north of Stockholm. There, research is conducted specifically on concrete and loose materials aimed at the hydropower industry.
22. 1 January 2020
Written by Rino Andersen
The Älvkarleby test dam that Cautus Geo is monitoring is a loose mass dam constructed in a collaboration between Luleå University of Technology and Vattenfall, among others. The dam has a length of 25 metres and a width of 15 metres and is constructed inside a concrete basin that is four metres deep.
- "The assignment is a recognition of us and our solutions. It's great to work on research-based projects with university environments in Sweden, which is an interesting market for us," says Atle Gerhardsen of Cautus Geo.
Loess dams are constructed in a similar way to loess dams in general. In other words, it is constructed with several layers, usually with the finest masses towards the core and coarser layers beyond.
The purpose of the assignment carried out by Cautus Geo is to research what happens inside, under and around a dam over time, and how it and its surroundings react to various stresses.
Equipment for monitoring:
- 3 different inclinometers of type SAAV, 50 mm measuring segment, placed on the water side, centre of the dam and on the air side.
- SAAV 250 mm provides very good accuracy on deformations in an x,y,z coordinate system.
- The piezometers measure the water pressure and are scattered throughout the different layers and heights inside the dam.
Other organisations are also involved in the project, where measurements of conditions such as strain along the bottom of the dam are also being carried out.
