The Effect of Sedimentation on the Useful Life of the Unilorin Dam
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Date
2018
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Journal of Research Information in Civil Engineering, Published by Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Abstract
The presence of sediments in a reservoir reduces full utilization of reservoir
for its intended purposes. This is because sediments pollute the water,
reduces the holding capacity of the reservoir and ultimately reduces the
amount of water available for use from such reservoir. This study determines
the effect of sedimentation rate of the Oyun River on the life span of the
University of Ilorin dam. Both practical and theoretical approaches were
used. Solids values of water samples obtained from the mouth of the
reservoir was obtained and used to compute the total volume of sediment
coming into the reservoir. The obtained values was compared with values
obtained by using existing equations and curves from literature. The water
demand for the university community was also computed and compared with
the rate of sedimentation of the dam to also estimate its useful life. The
practical and theoretical approach yielded 149.08 and 86.2 years respectively
as the useful life of the dam. This exceeds the usual recommended design
years for Dams. The sedimentation of the reservoir is also relatively low
because the catchment area enjoys a substantial vegetative growth for long
periods of the year which reduces erosion of loose soils. However,
considering the primary use of the dam to supplying water to the campus, and
assuming all other factors remain the same, the service life is about 40 years.
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Bed load, sedimentation, reservoir, dam, community.