DAMS AND HYDRAULIC STRUCTURES

Artelia takes on a wide variety of highly technical hydraulic development schemes. Designing and supervising the construction of dams for various purposes such as generating hydropower, controlling river flows, opening up waterways to shipping, and creating lakes and reservoirs, is one of our core fields of expertise. We have honed these skills through our work on dams of all types (arch, concrete gravity, RCC, rockfill and earth), while also gaining a wealth of experience in studying and mitigating the environmental and social impacts inherent to these large structures.

We also work on the hydraulic structures associated with dams (flood spillways, siphons, tunnels, feed chambers, stilling basins, etc.) and those required for other water transfer and distribution schemes (pumping stations, lift stations, water intakes and outfalls, vortex drop shafts, surge shafts, reservoirs, etc.).

Artelia has been accredited by the French state to perform safety studies of hydraulic structures, including monitoring on embankments and dams, a task for which it has designed a number of specific methods and tools. It has also performed numerous hydrological and dam break wave studies in order to prevent risks related to managing these major structures.

We have in-depth knowledge of all the techniques used in hydraulic engineering (free-surface flows, unsteady flow conditions, water hammer, regulation, etc.), as well as cutting-edge physical and numerical modelling services to test the structures we design.