Analysis of The Reasons for The Teton Dam Engineering Failure

A Design is a human creativity in order to achieve useful functions that help to harmonise the difficulties of life in order to make the human life easier. However, the engineering design is linked to specific criteria and may be covered by failure or success. Thus, these specific factors have external factors, such as accuracy, the error of the human factor, the mother nature and the quality of materials. Therefore, Failure has been included in the engineering design.

In order to understand the engineering failure, it is important to define it as what has been argued: "failure refers to the rupture or collapse of significant parts or all of the project or where operation of the project has caused significant damage or injury to others"(1993). Moreover, the advantages from failing are learning from the previous mistakes in order to avoid any regrets in the future when 7 convened that: "a failure is a full-scale destructive test to be exhaustively analyzed to determine what went wrong. It is a lesson for which the price has been paid regardless of whether the lesson is learned; however, only fools would pay for something not used” (1993). In context, the Teton dam is one of the controversial subjects of engineering failure because the opening day of it was unsuccessful that led to smash it down. Thus, it made many investigations and conferences which were about different doubts and interpretations. However, there are research and professional opinions that demonstrate the causes of this engineering tragedy. Subsequently, the purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the error of the collapse was by human error or whether it was geological reasons in the place where the dam was built on it which was inappropriate.

The Teton Dam, where located in The USA in eastern Idaho, started in 1972 with costs around fifty million dollars which Impounded Teton River. It was a huge dam with the height of 93 meters, length of 940 meters and width of 520 meters. The purpose of establishing it was improving the infrastructures in the area to provide protection from floods and generate electricity. The Bureau of Reclamation was who built it, they were completely self-confident that the dam was completely isolated from any leakage of water because the dam was completely isolated by grout. The centre of the dam was a matrix composed of gravel, plaster and various types of rocks that were used to form the core of the dam by tamping all the eclectic kinds of rocks together. On June 5, 1976, the dam was filled by water for the first time, then after a few hours, a big hole was shown in the dam's walls. in afternoon of that Sunday, the disaster started, and the dam had been collapsed to wash-down all the surrounded area, in addition, creating a big damage in the surrounded Infrastructures, also, it was a loss in souls around eleven people who were killed by the tragedy disaster.

Hence, it opens many assumptions and investigations to discover the reasons for this problem. One of the explanations of the main reason of failure was by I. J. Smalley and T. A. Dijkstra, they assumed that the reasonable reason of this disaster was the core of the dam had been filled by Losse which is a disintegrating substance accumulated of wind-blown dust, and it is homogeneous and highly porous. Logically, it heads to increased accessibility of water through rocks blend, which leads to penetration of large amounts of water through it, also increasing high rates of water access between the particles of rocks combination creating leakage between them. Thus, it leads to impact this combination in the core making crispness in it.

One of the main reasons of this collapse is the human factor. It is one of the most impact in the project because the tangible errors have reasons come from the lack in practice or experience or sometimes the problem has been warned and engineers choice poor choices. George argues that prior the disaster were shortage in data and plans of design which had discussed in the city hall before the collapse. Therefore, that evidence creates an image of the inaccuracy that had been done in the project.