On the 10th April 2024 the Tasmanian Young Professionals Organising Committee held an evening showcasing three perspectives from up and coming industry professionals, Sean Gottschling, Stella Harris and Wes Herweynen.
Sean kicked off proceedings with an excellent history and technical description of an interesting feature of some dams within Hydro Tasmania’s portfolio – Explodable Dome Dewatering Outlets (EDDO’s). These outlets were designed with great intentions at the time, but have created quite the engineering headache to maintain and operate under modern-day risk frameworks.
Stella took us on a journey into the world of finite element analysis, and a step-by-step approach to evaluating the benefits of considering water compressibility in seismic events at concrete dams. Depending on the site, this compressibility can have a large effect on the response of the structure to the seismic loads. Compressibility is more complex to analyse than a non-compressible model, but can provide a more realistic response, and thereby less uncertainty in the seismic design for concrete structures.
Wes wrapped things up with a 101 in tailings dam terminology (for the dam purists in the crowd a.k.a “Water Dams” engineers), followed by a great case study of a tailings dam upgrade in North-West Tasmania. The upgrade was part of a multi-stage downstream raise of an existing Tailings Storage Facility (TSF), where it wasn’t feasible to continue the clay core, and the use of a bituminous geomembrane liner was employed to facilitate the requirements of the raise. It was a great insight into some of the considerations which are commonplace in TSFs, which aren’t generally of concern at a water storage dam.
The evening attracted an audience of over 30 in person and 100+ online attendees. The Tasmanian YP Organising Committee would like to thank Hydro Tasmania for providing the facility, Leishman’s for the behind-the-scenes marketing and promotion, and the ANCOLD community for their ongoing support of Young Professionals in the industry.
ANCOLD is an incorporated voluntary association of organisations and individual professionals with an interest in dams in Australia.
