Structures of concrete faced rockfill dams in historical retrospective

Concrete faced rockfill dams are attractive type of dams for construction of high-head projects on poorly developed and remote territories. Application of these dams in Russia is hindered by lack of experience in their designing and construction. This article gives a historical survey of developing structural designs and methodologies for construction of rockfill dams with reinforced concrete faces as well as describes up-to-date principles of their designing. It was revealed that the methodology of designing rockfill dams with reinforced concrete faces is based on the empirical approach. To have the possibility of refinement of these dams structural design it is necessary to determine the principles of their structural behavior at perception of external forces, make theoretical validation of structural designs.