Estudo de patologias e uso de geomembranas em rip-rap em barragens e açudes de pequeno porte

Abstract

Earth dams are the most used structures in rural areas to store water, which serves both for agricultural irrigation and for animal consumption. An earth dam has several constituent parts, including the upstream slope, which is the part of the dam that is in contact with the water in the reservoir. Because of this contact, the upstream slope needs a protective structure, known as rip-rap, which is usually built with rockfill. However, if this rip-rap structure is not working properly, it will not work as a protection, and as a consequence, it will not prevent pathologies from occurring. Based on this, the need arises to look for new materials that can be used as an alternative for the construction and maintenance of rip-rap. Thus, this work aims to study the pathologies in some earth dams and weirs inserted in the municipality of Alegrete/RS, in addition to the study of the feasibility of using geomembranes, in the construction and maintenance of rip-rap structures on upstream slopes. . In order to carry out the present work, the upstream slopes of eight dams located in the rural area of Alegrete/RS were analyzed and inspected in-situ, in which a survey of the main pathologies that affect these dams was carried out. In addition, a correlation study was carried out between the advantages and disadvantages of using rockfill and geomembrane as rip-rap structures, in which research was carried out on the costs of both materials and their application, with five companies that worked with each of the researched materials. The study presented as results the presence of several anomalies in the constituent parts of the dams, in the upstream slope, the main pathologies result from the conditions of the material that forms the rip-rap structure. It was also obtained as a result, that the use of geomembrane as a rip-rap structure is more advantageous than using rockfill, because the cost for its use is lower and has a high durability. Thus, this work made it possible to record and verify the anomalies found in the studied dams, and showed that the use of geomembrane in rip-rap structures is a viable alternative.