Awards & Recognition • Mississippi State student engineering teams earn regional awards
• Adrienne Minerick awarded NSF CAREER Award
• Computer engineering major receives NSF fellowship

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The department of civil and environmental engineering is using a new research tool called a seepage tank to conduct this study.  The tank is constructed of clear plexi-glass and is large enough to build small-scale models of dams, levees or walls intended to retain water.  With this tank, experimenters—both student and faculty—can view first-hand the forces that lead to dam and levee failure.  They can also measure the water pressures that are initiating dam failure and compare them to predictions that were made prior to the experiment.  Engineers with this type of experience and knowledge are needed to ensure public safety for the future due to the many factors that go into building a safe structure.

Dr. Dennis Truax, head of the department of civil and environmental Engineering at MSU, said, “The ASCE in its last report card on infrastructures defines the U.S. conditions on dams as a “D. The reason for this is many were poorly designed or constructed, or at least not designed using engineering methods.” 

Chris Saucier, a lead investigator in the seepage tank research, said that in a recent national survey of dams and levees it was indicated that a surprising number of existing and working dams and levees within the U.S., including those made of concrete, earthen dams, rockfill dams, and sheet pile—walls like in New Orleans—have deteriorated to levels that are unsafe.

In response to this survey, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is developing a National Dam Safety Assessment Program.  The goal of the program is to inspect every “significant” dam, levee and retaining wall within the U.S. and rate them according to the safety specifications, including various risk factors and consequence of failure.  Under this system they will be able to rank the structures in order of need for repair then collaborate their resources and renovate those in order of severity.

This national effort within the Army Corps of Engineers is headed by two of MSU’s civil engineering graduates, George Sills and Noah Vroman at the U.S. Army Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Miss.  In addition, one of MSU’s undergraduate civil engineers gained hands-on experience by assisting Sills and Vroman with the assessments over the University holiday break. Kyle Crosby of Ruth, MS., worked writing spreadsheet programs to be used across the country to assess the risk factors of the investigated dams.

Story by: Laura Eakes