Seasonal Thermal Cracking of Concrete Dams in Northern Regions
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 28, Issue 4
Abstract
In several northern regions around the world, concrete dams are subjected to severe seasonal temperature variations, with up to 75°C changes from summer to winter. Those variations contribute to the degradation of the stiffness, strength, and durability of concrete dams. Thermal stresses and related concrete cracking also need to be evaluated to ensure the structural stability of the dam and to define the initial conditions for unusual or extreme load combinations, such as floods and earthquakes. This paper presents finite-element modeling procedures for assessing the thermomechanical behaviors of concrete dams. The stress relaxation and mechanical properties that depend on the temperature of the concrete are first investigated by considering the thermomechanical responses of simple notched beam models. Heat transfer and thermomechanical analyses are then presented for a 31-m concrete gravity dam and a 214-m multiple arch dam located in Canada. It is shown that temperature-dependent material properties do not significantly affect the structural response of the dam. Oblique cracks present on the downstream face of the multiple arch dam are successfully reproduced by the proposed numerical model. Modeling of the related cracked arch flexibility using equivalent linear continuum concrete constitutive models is also discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Québec Funds for research on nature and technology (FQRNT), and Hydro-Québec, and the collaboration of Hydro-Québec engineers who provided field data and the multiple arch dam FE model used in this study.
References
ANSYS. (2007). ANSYS software reference manuals, release notes, mechanical APDL, elements reference, commands reference and theory reference, version Release 11 (v10.8.0.7), Canonsburg, PA.
Bažant, Z. P., and Cedolin, L. (1979). “Blunt crack band propagation in finite element analysis.” J. Eng. Mech. Div., 297–315.
Bažant, Z. P., and Pfeiffer, P. A. (1987). “Determination of fracture energy from size effect and brittleness number.” ACI Mater. J., 84(6), 463–480.
Bažant, Z. P., and Prat, P. C. (1988). “Effect of temperature and humidity on fracture energy of concrete.” ACI Mater. J., 85(4), 262–271.
Bhattacharjee, S. S., and Léger, P. (1992). “Concrete constitutive models for nonlinear seismic analysis of gravity dams-state-of-the-art.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 19(3), 492–509.
Boggs, H. L. (1985). “Cracking in concrete dams: USBR case histories.” Proc., 15th ICOLD Congress on Large Dams, International Commission on Large Dams, Paris, France, 173–189.
Bulota, G., Im, O., and Larivière, R. (1991). “Le barrage Daniel-Johnson: Un vieillissement prématuré (The Daniel-Johnson Dam a premature ageing).” Proc., 17th ICOLD Congress on Large Dams, International Commission on Large Dams, Paris, France, 187–209.
Calayır, Y., and Karaton, M. (2005). “A continuum damage concrete model for earthquake analysis of concrete gravity dam-reservoir systems.” Int. J. Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng., 25(11), 857–869.
Caron, P., Léger, P., Tinawi, R., and Veilleux, M. (2003). “Slot cutting of concrete dams: Field observations and complimentary experimental studies.” ACI Struct. J., 100(4), 430–439.
Chantelois, A., Léger, P., Tinawi, R., and Veilleux, M. (1999). “Experimental and numerical predictions of critical cooling temperature for crack propagation in concrete structures.” ACI Struct. J., 96(2), 203–2011.
Chouinard, L., Larivière, R., Côté, P., and Zhao, W. (2006). “Analysis of irreversible displacements in multiple arch concrete dam using principal component analysis.” Proc., Joint Int. Conf. on Computing and Decision Making in Civil and Building Engineering, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 208–217.
Comité Euro-International du Béton-Fédération International de la Précontrainte (CEB-FIP) MODEL CODE. (1990). Comité Euro-International du Béton, Comité Euro-International du béton as Bulletins d'Information, 203–205.
Dahmani, L., Khennane, A., and Kaci, S. (2010). “Crack identification in reinforced concrete beams using ANSYS software.” Strength Mater., 42(2), 232–239.
Dassault Systems. (2011). ABAQUS/CAE - Abaqus 6.11 documentation collection, version Student Edition 6.11-2, Providence, RI.
De Borst, R. (1997). “Some recent developments in computational modeling of concrete fracture.” Int. J. Fract., 86(1–2), 5–36.
Dontsi-Maken, D. (2012). “Thermo-mechanical cracking of concrete dams located in northern regions.” M.A.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Civil, Geological, and Mining Engineering, Ecole Polytechique de Montreal, Montreal, (in French).
Lee, G. C., Shih, T. S., and Chang, K. C. (1988). “Mechanical properties of concrete at low temperature.” J. Cold Regions Eng., 13–24.
Léger, P., and Seydou, S. (2009). “Seasonal thermal displacement of gravity dams located in northern regions.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 166–174.
Malm, R., and Anders, A. (2011). “Cracking of concrete buttress dam due to seasonal temperature variation.” ACI Struct. J., 108(1), 13–21.
Paul, J. W., and Tarbox, G. S. (1991). “Definition of critical thermal states in arch dams: A prerequisite for cracking analysis.” Proc. Int. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Conf. on Dam Fracture, V. E. Saouma, R. Dungar, and D. Morris, eds., Boulder, CO, 643–657.
Rots, J. G., and Blaawendraad, J. (1989). “Crack model for concrete: Discrete or smeared? Fixed, multidirectional or rotating?” HERON, 34(1), 3–56.
Rots, J. G., and de Borst, R. (1987). “Analysis of mixed-mode fracture in concrete.” J. Eng. Mech., 1739–1758.
Sheibany, F., and Ghaemian, M. (2006). “Effects of environmental action on thermal stress analysis of Karaj concrete arch dam.” J. Eng. Mech., 532–544.
Shkoukani, H., and Walraven, J. C. (1994). “Creep and relaxation of concrete subject to imposed thermal deformations.” Creep and shrinkage of concrete, E&F Spon, London, U.K., 45–55.
Tahmazian, B., Yeh, C.-H., and Paul, W. J. (1989). “Thermal cracking and arch action in Daniel Johnson Dam.” Proc., Int. Symp. on Analytical Evaluation of Dam Related Safety Problems, International Commission on Large Dams, Danish and Iceland National Committees on Large Dams, 235–244.
Tarbox, G. S. (1977). “Design of concrete dams.” Handbook of dam engineering, A. R. Golzé, ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold, London, U.K.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). (1977). “Design criteria for concrete arch and gravity dams.” Denver.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). (2006). “State-of-practice for the nonlinear analysis of concrete dams at the bureau of reclamation.” Denver.
Vecchio, F. J., Agotino, N., and Angelakos, B. (1993). “Reinforced concrete slabs subjected to thermal loads.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 20(5), 741–753.
Veltrop, J. A., Yeh, C.-H., and Paul, W. J. (1990). “Evaluation of cracks in a multiple arch dam.” Dam Eng., 1(5), 5–12.
Volynchikov, A. N., Mgalobelov, Y. B., and Deineko, A. V. (2011). “Substantiation of the design for the downstream and spillway faces of a concrete dam functioning under severe climatic conditions.” Power Technol. Eng., 45(2), 91–95.
Willam, K. J., and Warnke, E. D. (1975). “Constitutive model for the triaxial behavior of concrete.” Proc., Int. Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering, Vol. 19, Istituto Sperimentale Modelli E Strutture (ISMES), Bergamo, Italy.
Zhang, Y., and Ma, L. (1991). “Relation between the ageing of concrete and the ambient temperature.” Proc., 17th ICOLD Congress on Large Dams, International Commission on Large Dams, Paris, France, 257–268.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 28 • Issue 4 • August 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 8, 2012
Accepted: Jun 4, 2013
Published online: Jun 6, 2013
Published in print: Aug 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Oct 22, 2014
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.