Structural damage to an arch dam is often of major concern and must be evaluated for probable rehabilitation to ensure safe, regular, normal operation. This evaluation is crucial to prevent any catastrophic or failure consequences for the life time of the dam. If specific major damage such as a large crack occurs to the dam body, the assessments will be necessary to determine the current level of safety and predict the resistance of the structure to various future loading such as earthquakes, etc. This study investigates the behavior of an arch dam cracked due to water pressure. Safety factors (SFs), of shear and compressive tractions were calculated at the surfaces of the contraction joints and the cracks. The results indicated that for cracking with an extension depth of half the thickness of the dam body, for both cases of penetration and non-penetration of water load into the cracks, SFs only slightly reduces. However, in case of increasing the depth of crack extension into the entire thickness of the dam body, the friction angle of the cracked surface is crucial; however, if it reduces, the normal loading SFs of stresses and joints tractions reduce significantly.
Key Words
arch concrete dams; cracking; safety and performance evaluation; stage construction; Morrow Point dam
Address
(1) Xiangyang Zhang, Weixun Yong, Jian Zhou — School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China
(2) Xiangyang Zhang, Weixun Yong — Kunming Prospecting Design Institute Of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Co., Ltd., Kunming, 650051, China
(3) Vahid Bayat — Faculty of Civil Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
(4) Mohammadreza Koopialipoor — Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, 15914, Tehran, Iran
(5) Danial Jahed Armaghani — Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, Da Nang 550000, Vietnam.
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