A. H. GHAZVINIAN - Faculty Member, Tarbiat Modarres University & Senior Geotechnical Advisor, IWPC, Tehran, Iran
A. R. KHOSHBORESH - Karun ۳ Dam & HEPP, Iran Water and Power Development Resources Co., Ministry of Energy, Tehran, Iran
Z. A. MORADIAN - Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran

The instrumentation of dams has found an important status in recent years in Iran. In large projects such as concrete and earthen dams the installation and monitoring of the instruments is an integral part of the project especially during construction and operation. Nowadays, no designer or project manager can insure the technical quality and related stabilities of the project in the absence of the instrumentations. Instrumentations are an important means to assess the state of the stability at various parts of the project. It is evident that the type of the instruments is based on the type of structures, geo-structures, technical, and execution conditions. The Karun 3 Dam is an important hydro electric power project of Iran. The project is comprised of the largest and most complicated double curvature concrete dam of the country, and possesses an important status worldwide. The underground powerhouse complex is also a giant project. Considering the large dimensions of the dam body, and the underground powerhouse complex with a power cavern of 251.10m x 25.43m x 47.70m (which is unique in the country), the instrumentation is an important issue. The instrumentation of the Karun 3 project, the processing of the results, and related interpretations are elaborated in the paper.

Karun 3, Instrumentation, Monitoring, Powerhouse complex, Power cavern, Dam body