A Dam Performance Model Based on Rehabilitation of the Kariba Dam

Abstract

Abstract Because of the damage in its major parts such as the plunge pool and sluice gates, the Kariba Dam is now in a dangerous state that needs urgent actions of rehabilitation. In this paper, we use the multiple dam system in Kariba to verify the dam performance models we propose. First, a dam performance model is built with 3 parts which are focused on hydropower generation, water storage capacity, and the costs of a single dam respectively. Next, we simulated the geometrical characteristic of the dams based on the terrain of Zambezi river basin. The number and placements of the multiple dams system are determined to satisfy the generation and water capacity of the existing dam. Discussion of the costs-benefits difference between multiple dams system and other 2 solutions are made, the result shows that mulitple dam system is the optimal solution, and the model we proposed were proved to be reliable.