Many parts of our nation’s infrastructure are aging and dams are no exception. And as troubling as that sounds, especially if there is an extreme event like a large earthquake, the good news is that the decades-old engineering was sound and is holding up to the test of time. Civil engineer Lee Glascoe of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was part of a team evaluating the design standards of soil filters used in embankment dams.

"The soil filters are coarser grained soils that are designed to withstand both large movements and to prevent the rapid erosion or the flushing of the finer earthen material that is constructed around the dam. So essentially, it’s there to provide the dam reinforcement."

The team was able to validate the effectiveness of soil filters using 3-D computer modeling and simulations.

"The earlier engineers had fairly straightforward but sound principles upon which they based their designs. The challenge for engineers today is how do we refresh that infrastructure?"