Forced Vibration Tests

Baitings Dam (Where is it?)

Vibration tests were carried out on Baitings Dam, a concrete gravity dam, in Yorkshire.

Special machines called "Rotating Eccentric Mass Exciters" were used to put a small vibration force into the dam. Four of them were bolted to its top. (Show Me). The vibrations of the dam were measured using accelerometers.

As the dam vibrated, it moved into and away from the reservoir, changing the water pressure. The water pressure varied from the face of the dam out into the reservoir. Measurements of the changing water pressures were made using hydrophones. These were suspended from buoys on the reservoir surface (Show Me).

Cables, carrying the electrical signals back to the dam, were floated on the top of the water (Show Me).

The measured accelerations and water pressures were compared with those from a computer simulation of the dam (Why?). The forces from the "Rotating Eccentric Mass Exciters" were also represented in the computer simulation.