Damage mechanics approach and modeling nonuniform cracking within finite elements for safety evaluation of concrete dams in 3D space

An anisotropic damage mechanics approach is introduced which models the static and dynamic behavior of mass concrete in 3D space. The introduced numerical approach is able to model non-uniform cracking within the cracked element due to cracking in Gaussian points of elements. The validity of the proposed model is considered using available experimental and theoretical results under the static and dynamic loads. No instability and stress locking is observed in the conducted analyses. The Morrow Point dam is analyzed including dam-reservoir interaction effects to consider the nonlinear seismic behavior of the dam. It is found that the resulting crack profiles are in good agreement with those obtained from the smeared crack approach. It is concluded that the proposed model can be used in nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of concrete dams in 3D space and enables engineers to define the damage level of these infrastructures. The performance level of the considered system is used to assess the static and seismic safety using the defined performance based criteria.