Optimizing Earth Allocation for Rock-Fill Dam Construction

An optimal allocation of earth is of great significance to reduce the project cost and duration in the construction of rock-fill dams. The earth allocation is a dynamic system affected by various time-space constraints. Based on previous studies, a new method of optimizing this dynamic system as a static one is presented. In order to build a generalized and flexible model of the problem, some man-made constraints were investigated in building the mathematic model. Linear programming and simplex method are introduced to solve the optimization problem of earth allocation. A case study in a large-scale rock-fill dam construction project is presented to demonstrate the proposed method and its successful application shows the feasibility and effectiveness of the method.