Hydro-mechanical coupling algorithm of reinforced concrete lining in hydraulic pressure tunnel using cohesive elements

The reinforced concrete lining in the hydraulic pressure tunnel tends to crack during the water-filling process. The lining will be detached from the surrounding rock due to the inner water exosmosis along concrete cracks. From the previous research achievements, the cohesive element is widely adopted to simulate the concrete crack but rarely adopted to simulate the lining-rock interface. In this study, the zero-thickness cohesive element with hydro-mechanical coupling property is not only employed to simulate the traditional concrete crack, but also innovatively introduced to simulate the lining-rock interface. Combined with the indirect-coupled method, the hydro-mechanical coupling algorithm of the reinforced concrete lining in hydraulic pressure tunnels is proposed and implemented in the finite element code ABAQUS. The calculated results reveal the cracking mechanism of the reinforced concrete lining, and match well with the observed engineering phenomenon.