• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.149-158
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• 2015

It is well known that emergency outlet works have to be provided for the safety of dams. However, concept of emergency outlet works did not applied for the design of the most dams in Korea. Korean design standard for low-level outlet works does not provide enough design criteria which could be used in design of emergency outlet works. In this research, as-built status and hydraulic design criteria of outlet works, such as drawdown rate or hydraulic pressure due to the impounded water depth, were examined. Another relationship between drawdown rate and the dam slope stability was also examined with SEEP model. It was found that 25% reduction of impounded water depth decreases the pressure forces about 50%. Therefore, outlet works should be designed to drawdown properly at the beginning of the emergency. Seepage analysis of dam bodies showed that most of Korean dams could safely stand for 1m/day drawdown rate. Higher drawdown rate could result high discharge so the drawdown rate must be related with the flood risk of downstream. Finally, multi-stage design was recommended that faster discharge for the initial 25% of water depth in 7-10 days than the rest of it in 1-2 months.