Concrete Hydraulic Structures Affected by Alkali–Aggregate Reaction: Numerical and Experimental Investigations
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 37, Issue 6
Abstract
An existing hydroelectric facility affected by alkali–aggregate reaction (AAR) is considered in this study through numerical and experimental investigations. A new developed phenomenological hygro–chemo–mechanical approach for AAR is presented and is shown to be practical and effective in damage assessing of large-scale hydraulic concrete structures. Experimental investigations were conducted to characterize the AAR kinetics of mass concrete mixture with very large aggregates, used in the construction of the facility. By combining experimental, numerical, and monitoring investigations, it was possible to assess size effects related to the free AAR expansion of mass concrete. Numerical simulations allowed to obtain a damage pattern similar to the cracking profile of the existing facility, to provide mechanical interpretation of the jumps observed in the instrumentation data, and most importantly, to predict the remaining time before reaching the asymptotic expansion of the facility: a very important result for owners of hydroelectric facilities affected by AAR.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions.
Acknowledgments
The financial support provided by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Hydro-Quebec is acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Hydro-Quebec Engineers for their fruitful collaboration and discussions. A very special thanks to Mario Veilleux from Hydro-Quebec who believed in this project and provided valuable guidance and support, and to Benoit Durand and Maxime Leboeuf from IREQ (Hydro-Quebec Research Institute) for their valuable support during the conducted expansion experimental tests. The first author would like to thank Professor Pierre Léger (Polytechnique Montréal) for his comments that helped improve the manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 37 • Issue 6 • December 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 1, 2023
Accepted: Aug 25, 2023
Published online: Oct 11, 2023
Published in print: Dec 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Mar 11, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Alkalinity and acidity
- Analysis (by type)
- Buildings
- Chemical properties
- Chemistry
- Concrete
- Concrete structures
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Environmental engineering
- Facilities (by type)
- Facility management
- Hydraulic engineering
- Hydraulic structures
- Mass concrete
- Materials engineering
- Methodology (by type)
- Numerical analysis
- Numerical methods
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Water and water resources
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