Uplift Pressures on Hollow Gravity Dams

Closed-form solution has been obtained with the help of the Schwartz-Christoffel transformation for the determination of uplift pressures on hollow gravity dams. The uplift pressures have been calculated numerically from the derived equations and plotted to facilitate the use of the results for design purposes. It is seen that uplift pressures along the joint between two monoliths drop almost linearly from the full-uplift pressure at the upstraam face of the dam to zero uplift at the head of the cavity. The uplift along the center line of the monolith drops linearly to about less than one-third of the diffrential head at a point opposite the head of the cavity. Beyond this, the reduction in the uplift pressures is gradual.