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Topic · Civil and Structural Engineering

Dam Engineering and Safety

Dam Engineering and Safety is a research topic within Civil and Structural Engineering. Science Explorer counts 17k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the statistics, mechanisms, and modelling of embankment dam failures, including topics such as internal erosion, piping phenomena, seismic analysis, suffusion characteristics in granular soils, and the deformation of concrete dams. It also explores hydraulic gradients and breaching parameters.

  • Embankment Dams
  • Internal Erosion
  • Piping Phenomena
  • Dam Behaviour Modelling
  • Seismic Analysis
  • Suffusion Characteristics
  • Granular Soils
  • Concrete Dam Deformation
  • Hydraulic Gradients
  • Breaching Parameters
Research works
17k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+23%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
64% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Dam Engineering and Safety

Which countries lead Dam Engineering and Safety research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (2.2k and 310 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.2k works
  2. 2 India 310 works
  3. 3 United States 260 works
  4. 4 Iran 156 works
  5. 5 Japan 111 works
  6. 6 Italy 106 works
  7. 7 Canada 90 works
  8. 8 Türkiye 84 works
  9. 9 Indonesia 79 works
  10. 10 United Kingdom 78 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 63.8%India: 8.8%United States: 7.4%Iran: 4.4%6 others listed: 15.6%64%largest
China2,248 · 63.8%India310 · 8.8%United States260 · 7.4%Iran156 · 4.4%6 others listed548 · 15.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Dam Engineering and Safety research?

By volume in 2022-now, Hohai University publishes the most Dam Engineering and Safety research, followed by Tongji University and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Hohai UniversityChina 141 works
  2. 2 Tongji UniversityChina 62 works
  3. 3 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 61 works
  4. 4 Xi'an University of TechnologyChina 50 works
  5. 5 Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of ChinaChina 47 works
  6. 6 Sichuan UniversityChina 47 works
  7. 7 Dalian University of TechnologyChina 45 works
  8. 8 Central South UniversityChina 43 works
  9. 9 Wuhan UniversityChina 38 works
  10. 10 China University of GeosciencesChina 38 works

Who are the leading researchers in Dam Engineering and Safety?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Dam Engineering and Safety include Xiaogang Wang, Kai You Wang and Lei Jiang.

  1. 1 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  2. 2 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  3. 3 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  4. 4 Han Zhang China 161k citations
  5. 5 Stanley Osher United States 119k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Dam Engineering and Safety?

The most cited paper in Dam Engineering and Safety is "Element‐free Galerkin methods" (Ted Belytschko, Ye Lu, Linxia Gu, 1994), with 5,653 citations. Next come "Reproducing kernel particle methods" (2,856) and "Effects of Earthquakes on Dams and Embankments" (2,758).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Element‐free Galerkin methods Ted Belytschko, Ye Lu, Linxia Gu · International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 30 Jan 1994 5,653
2 Reproducing kernel particle methods Wing Kam Liu, Sukky Jun, Yi Fei Zhang · International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids 30 Apr 1995 2,856
3 Effects of Earthquakes on Dams and Embankments Nathan M. Newmark · Géotechnique Jun 1965 2,758
4 Validity of Cubic Law for fluid flow in a deformable rock fracture P.A. Witherspoon, J. S. Y. Wang, Koichiro Iwai et al. · Water Resources Research Open access Dec 1980 2,452
5 Landslide risk assessment and management: an overview F.C. Dai, C.F Lee, Y.Y Ngai · Engineering Geology Apr 2002 1,603
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Dam Engineering and Safety research done?

The largest centres of Dam Engineering and Safety research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Wuhan (China) and Chengdu (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Chengdu, Yichang and Roorkee.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 394 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 227 works
  3. 3 WuhanChina 164 works
  4. 4 ChengduChina 133 works
  5. 5 Xi'anChina 111 works
  6. 6 ShanghaiChina 104 works
  7. 7 HangzhouChina 79 works
  8. 8 ZhengzhouChina 78 works
  9. 9 ChongqingChina 74 works
  10. 10 ChangshaChina 70 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Chengdu21.3 works28×
  2. YichangCN · 29.4 works26×
  3. RoorkeeIN · 21.7 works10×
  4. XuzhouCN · 38.7 works9.3×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Dam Engineering and Safety than the world average.

See Dam Engineering and Safety on the map

Where is the best place to study Dam Engineering and Safety?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China University of Geosciences and Hohai University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 24.03%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…China University of …Chongqing UniversityHohai University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 77.739.0%5.9×20 +94.6%
2China University of GeosciencesChina 62.725.1%21.3×38 +3.8%
3Hohai UniversityChina 62.114.3%60.9×141 +12.4%
4Chongqing UniversityChina 61.122.3%7.6×32 +46.5%
5Tongji UniversityChina 60.115.6%10.2×62 +42.0%
6Central South UniversityChina 58.320.2%5.7×43 +43.6%
7Dalian University of TechnologyChina 57.624.2%12.2×45 +7.0%
8Sichuan UniversityChina 56.321.3%5.2×47 +35.0%
9Thammasat UniversityThailand 55.532.7%11.7×8 +150.1%
10National Institute of Technology PatnaIndia 54.025.6%27.6×16 +64.5%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Dam Engineering and Safety, country by country

Is Dam Engineering and Safety research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 23% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Dam Engineering and Safety.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Dam Engineering and Safety as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.018% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Dam Engineering and Safety0.018% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Dam Engineering and Safety over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Dam Engineering and Safety10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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