**1. Introduction**

Hydropower plants are among the most important elements of the life support infrastructure of many countries. Currently, there are over 100 hydropower plants with a capacity of over 100 MW with a total installed capacity of about 45 GW in Russia. This number includes 10 large hydropower plants with a capacity of more than 1000 MW and 5 largest hydropower plants with a capacity of over 3000 MW. The latter include the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP with a capacity of 6400 MW, with a dam height of 245 m and a length of 1074 m; Krasnoyarskaya HPP with a capacity of 6000 MW, with a dam height of 128 m and a length of 1072 m; Ust-Ilimskaya

HPP with a capacity of 3840 MW, with a dam height of 105 m and a length of 1475 m; Bratskaya HPP with a capacity of 4500 MW, with a dam height of 124 m and a length of 924 m; and Boguchanskaya HPP with a capacity of 3000 MW, with a dam height of 96 m and a length of 2690 m (**Figure 1**). In the world, there are 7 large hydropower plants with capacity from 5000 to 14,000 MW.

For many years, the safety of technical systems was based on the assumption that a technical object is sufficiently reliable and safe if it meets the requirements of the current regulatory documents. However, the operating experience of such objects showed that compliance with the design, manufacturing, and operating regulations does not exclude the possibility of emergency situations, accidents, and disasters. From this it follows that the security system for hydropower plants should be based not only on traditional approaches but also on new, scientifically based methods of computational-experimental analysis within the concepts of "security—protection —risk—safety—survivability—reliability—resource—strength." Such an analysis requires adjustment of the existing traditional methods of design, construction, and operation of hydropower plants, with the solution of problems of strength and service life of structures and equipment from the standpoint of ensuring the lowest possible risk of accidents. This chapter outlines the main provisions of such an approach for hydro turbines, which are the main equipment of hydropower plants. The scientific and technical tasks, considered here, reflect the experience of research and ensuring the strength, resource, and safety of the technical objects [1–3].

*Laboratory, Bench, and Full-Scale Researches of Strength, Reliability, and Safety…*

**2. Concept of computational and experimental substantiation of**

Taking into account the consequences of accidents and disasters, hydropower plants with a capacity of 1000–5000 MW can be attributed to critical infrastructure objects. Hydropower plants with a capacity of more than 5000 MW can be considered as strategical objects of infrastructure. For such objects, along with the provision of generally accepted standards and requirements of strength, resource, and reliability, the problems of protection from severe accidents and disasters with survivability and risk analysis should be considered [4]. General requirements for ensuring the protection of hydropower plants from severe accidents were formulated in [5]. For water power plants, along with abidance of generally accepted requirements of technical regulations and standards, protection against the most severe catastrophes (design, beyond design and hypothetical) and terrorist impacts must be considered. When solving safety problems, the following should be

• Critical elements, critical zones, and critical points of the most critical nodes

• Methods and systems of protection against disasters (rigid, functional, natural,

• Measures to counter disasters and analyze and reduce the risks of disasters at

The results of the investigation into the causes of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP catastrophe [2, 4, 5] indicate the need for conducting special studies of the causal

• Consequences of the emergence and development of disasters

water power plants for the region and the country

**hydropower plant safety**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88306*

analyzed:

• Types of disasters

combined)

**37**

• Scenarios and sources of occurrence

• Probability characteristics of disasters

In the presence of extensive national and international experience in the design, construction, and operation of large hydropower plants, accidents of various scales occur on them, including great economic losses and human losses. The largest in the history of hydropower is the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP disaster, accompanied by the destruction and flooding of the machine room, damage to hydraulic units, and the death of people (**Figure 2**). In this regard, the development of measures and means to ensure the safety of hydropower facilities is of paramount importance.

**Figure 1.** *Sayano-Shushenskaya (a), Krasnoyarskaya (b), Ust-Ilimkaya (c), and Bratskaya (d) hydropower plants.*

**Figure 2.** *Disaster of Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP.*

*Laboratory, Bench, and Full-Scale Researches of Strength, Reliability, and Safety… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88306*

For many years, the safety of technical systems was based on the assumption that a technical object is sufficiently reliable and safe if it meets the requirements of the current regulatory documents. However, the operating experience of such objects showed that compliance with the design, manufacturing, and operating regulations does not exclude the possibility of emergency situations, accidents, and disasters. From this it follows that the security system for hydropower plants should be based not only on traditional approaches but also on new, scientifically based methods of computational-experimental analysis within the concepts of "security—protection —risk—safety—survivability—reliability—resource—strength." Such an analysis requires adjustment of the existing traditional methods of design, construction, and operation of hydropower plants, with the solution of problems of strength and service life of structures and equipment from the standpoint of ensuring the lowest possible risk of accidents. This chapter outlines the main provisions of such an approach for hydro turbines, which are the main equipment of hydropower plants. The scientific and technical tasks, considered here, reflect the experience of research and ensuring the strength, resource, and safety of the technical objects [1–3].
