Removal of 80-Year-Old Gravity Dam and Mechanical Properties of Aging Dam Concrete
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 35, Issue 5
Abstract
Service life of concrete structures depends on the structure design, construction management, and the durability of concrete in aggressive exposure conditions. The old Fengman Dam is an 80-year-old gravity dam, and due to design and construction defects, it has worked with leakage and freeze-thawing problems for more than 70 years. In this study, the durability of the dam concrete is investigated, and a coring program is conducted. The static and dynamic mechanical properties of aging dam concrete (ADC) are tested and the micropores are also observed by scanning electron microscope. Young laboratory concrete (LC) with similar compression strength of the ADC is prepared for comparison. The experimental results show that despite the harsh working conditions, the ADC exhibits good mechanical characteristics in terms of static and dynamic strength and microporosity of interfacial transition zones. The dam concrete is proved to exhibit good durability, and the service life of old Fengman Dam was limited by the poor construction management.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52022047, 51639006, and 51725901) for funding support of this study.
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 35 • Issue 5 • October 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 21, 2020
Accepted: Apr 23, 2021
Published online: Jul 15, 2021
Published in print: Oct 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Dec 15, 2021
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