Computers and Structures 72 (1999) 267278

Analysis of an archgravity dam with a horizontal crack

S. Malla*, M. Wieland
Electrowatt Engineering Ltd, Bellerivestrasse 36, PO Box, CH-8034 Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract A horizontal crack rst appeared along the downstream wall of the upper gallery of an archgravity dam after 25 years of operation. Since then, the crack has extended over the whole length of the upper gallery and the crack opening has been continually increasing. This has been accompanied by an irreversible displacement of the dam crest towards the upstream side. This problem was investigated with the help of a three-dimensional nite-element model of the damfoundation system. The results of an extensive nite element study show that such behaviour can be satisfactorily explained with an assumption of a gradual increase of the volume of the mass concrete due to alkaliaggregate reactions (AAR). The testing of the mass concrete used in the dam also indicates a substantial potential for the occurrence of such reactions. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Arch-gravity dam; Mass concrete; Thermal analysis; Fracture mechanics; Alkaliaggregate reactions; Inelastic displacements

1. Introduction A continuous crack was observed along the downstream wall of the upper gallery of a 45 m high arch gravity dam after 25 years of operation. The upper gallery is located about 15 m below the dam crest. Since then, the crack has propagated along almost the whole dam length and the crack opening has been continually increasing at a rate of up to 0.1 mm per year. This has been accompanied by an irreversible displacement of the crest towards the reservoir by about 1.1 mm per year. A similar crack has also been observed at the corner at the base of the upstream wall of the upper gallery. However, the crack opening of this crack is much smaller than that of the rst crack.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +41-1-385-29-57; fax: +41-1385-24-25. E-mail address: sujan.malla@ewe.ch (S. Malla)

For the investigation of this problem, a study was carried out using a three-dimensional nite-element model of the damfoundation system. The thermal and elastic properties of a linear-elastic model were determined with the help of the available records of the concrete and air temperatures, and the dam displacements measured by means of a pendulum located in the central part of the dam. The results of the stress analysis for the combination of gravity, temperature and water loads show that there are zones of relatively high tensile stresses on the walls of the upper gallery in summer at the locations of the observed cracks. However, these tensile stresses are not high enough to satisfactorily explain the formation of the cracks. Based on this study, the occurrence of alkaliaggregate reactions was identied as the most likely cause of the crack formation in the upper gallery of the dam. The testing of the mass concrete also shows a relatively high potential for alkali aggregate reactions in the dam.

0045-7949/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 4 5 - 7 9 4 9 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 3 3 - 4

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Fig. 1. Upstream face of dam (developed view) and cross-section through block 10 showing upper and lower galleries.

2. Main features of dam The archgravity dam, shown in Fig. 1, has a maximum height of 45 m and a crest length of 290 m. The crest width is 5 m and the maximum base width is 22 m. The total volume of the mass concrete is 71,000 m3. The properties of the concrete used in the dam are listed in Table 1. The coarse aggregates consist of mainly gneiss, more or less rich in mica with a maximum grain size of 80 mm. An air-entraining agent was added during the mixing of the concrete. The concreting was done in 2.7 m lifts. A network of pipes was provided in the lower portions for the articial cooling of the concrete, helping to reduce the concrete temperature from a maximum value of 408C to about 58C in about 5 months.

for the thermal and displacement analyses has 14,555 nodes and 41,634 degrees of freedom. A relatively ne FE mesh was required in view of the high thermal gradients near the dam faces and the high stress gradients around the upper gallery. The lower gallery in the dam was not modelled. The same nite element mesh was used for both the thermal and displacement analyses. 4. Thermal analysis 4.1. Thermodynamics of mass concrete The thermodynamic behaviour of the mass concrete is primarily governed by its diusivity h which is dened as k h 1 rc where k is the thermal conductivity, r is the mass density and c is the specic heat per unit mass. Depending mainly upon the type of aggregates, the diusivity of mass concrete can vary between 0.75 106 and 1.70 106 m2/s (see ACI 207.1R-87 [1]). As the average monthly air temperature at the site varies in an almost sinusoidal fashion over a period of

3. Finite element model The three-dimensional ADINA nite-element (FE) model of the damfoundation system, consisting of 20node solid elements, is shown in Fig. 2. There are 1722 and 1560 elements in the dam and the foundation rock, respectively. The three-dimensional model used

Table 1 Properties of mass concrete Surface concrete (2 m thick on upstream face and 1.5 m thick on downstream face) Cement content Watercement ratio 28-day cube strength 250 kg/m3 0.56 29 MPa Mass concrete (interior portion) 190 kg/m3 0.71 20 MPa

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Fig. 2. Three-dimensional nite element model of damfoundation system and mesh used for block 10.

one year, the temperature distribution within a thick concrete dam can also be approximately estimated with the help of a simplied analytical model as discussed below. Let the surface of a homogeneous half-space be subjected to a sinusoidal temperature uctuation (i.e. deviation from the mean temperature) given by Ts t T0 sin o t 2

xp,annual=8.8 m. It is clear that the penetration depth of the annual or seasonal cycles is about 20 times larger than that of the daily cycles. The daily cycles aect only a thin surface layer, which does not lead to signicant displacements in a dam with a thickness of 5 22 m. Therefore, the eects of the daily temperature uctuations could be ignored in this study. 4.2. Boundary conditions for thermal analysis The correct modelling of the boundary conditions on the upstream and downstream faces of the dam is very important for the accurate computation of the temperature distribution within the dam. The surface processes, i.e. convection and radiation, determine the relationship between the air and concrete surface temperatures. The proper modelling of these processes taking into account the daily as well as seasonal variations of the air temperature and the solar radiation is a dicult task. The need to model these surface processes can, however, be circumvented by extrapolating the concrete surface temperatures from the measurements of the concrete temperatures close to the surface. Assuming an exponential decay of the amplitude of temperature uctuation and neglecting the small phase lag, the temperature uctuation Ts(t ) at the concrete surface can be expressed in terms of the temperature uctuation T1(t ) at a small distance x1 from the surface as follows: Ts t T1 teax 1 6

where o is the circular frequency of the temperature uctuation (o=7.27 105 rad/s for daily cycles and o=2.0 107 rad/s for annual cycles) and T0 is the amplitude of the temperature uctuation at the concrete surface The temperature uctuation at a distance x from the surface at any time t can be written in the form Tx,t T0 eax sino t ax where r o a 2h 3

Eq. (3) shows that the amplitude of the temperature uctuation decays exponentially with the distance from the surface. If the penetration depth xp is dened as the depth where the amplitude of the temperature uctuation is reduced to one-tenth of the value at the surface, we can write xp ln 10 a 5

For h=1.45 106 m2/s (which corresponds to the calibrated value for the dam), the following penetration depths are obtained: for daily temperature uctuations with a=5.01 m1; xp,daily=0.46 m; for annual temperature uctuations with a=0.263 m1:

The concrete temperature measurements were available in the dam at a distance of x1=0.5 m from the downstream face. As h=1.45 106 m2/s (calibrated value), the uctuations of the concrete temperatures on the

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Fig. 3. Comparison of measured and computed concrete temperatures at two points in dam during 19951997.

downstream face of the dam were taken as 14% higher than the measured ones at a depth of 0.5 m. The concrete temperatures on the upstream dam face are governed by the temperatures of the air and the reservoir, and the water level. As no measurements of concrete temperatures close to the upstream face were available, they were estimated as follows. 4.2.1. Above water surface From a correlation analysis of the available data from another dam in a similar climate, the following relationship was established between the concrete surface temperature Tus on the upstream dam face above the water surface and the air temperature Tair:

Tus 0X905Tair 0X48C

For comparison, due to a dierent solar exposure, the corresponding relationship for the temperature Tds of the downstream dam face, which is on the sunny side, is as follows: Tds 0X937Tair 7X28C 8

4.2.2. Below water surface In the submerged part of the upstream dam face, the concrete surface has the same temperature as the adjacent water. As the reservoir is frozen from December to April, the water temperature was assumed to be uniform 38C during this period. For the remaining

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Fig. 4. Air temperatures (monthly averages) and reservoir levels during 1997.

months, the variations of the water temperature with depth were obtained from measurements. 4.3. Thermal calibration The accurate computation of the temperature distribution at dierent times of the year is very important in the case of this rather small archgravity dam, as a major part of the dam displacement is due to the variation of the temperature distribution in the dam body. For this purpose, the diusion constant h was rst determined by means of a thermal calibration of the nite element model. The thermal analysis was carried out using ADINAT [2]. An integration time step of 1 week was selected, as this was sucient for the purpose of the computation of the seasonal changes of the concrete temperatures. For simplicity, the dam foundation (rock) was assumed to have the same diusion constant as the dam itself. As the upper gallery is not ventilated, adiabatic conditions were assumed on its surface, i.e. no heat ow was assumed to occur between the concrete and the air inside the gallery. At the start of the computation (arbitrarily taken as

1990), a uniform temperature of 78C was assumed over the whole dam. After about 34 years, the transient eects originating from the initial conditions became negligible in the computed temperature distribution in the dam. For the calibration of the thermal properties, the computed and measured concrete temperatures at several points inside the dam were compared. The computation was repeated until the discrepancy between them became a minimum. Through such a trial-anderror calibration procedure, the diusion constant of the mass concrete was estimated as 1.45 106 m2/s. The time histories of the computed temperatures in the calibrated model and the measured temperatures at two points in the dam are compared in Fig. 3. Clearly, the computed temperatures in the calibrated model agree very well with the measurements of the concrete temperatures within the dam.

5. Calibration of elastic properties of mass concrete The seasonal changes in the dam displacements are due to the variations of the reservoir level and the

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Fig. 5. Comparison of measured displacements and displacements computed with 3D nite element model after calibration based on regression analyses.

temperature distribution in the dam. In Fig. 4, the air temperatures (which mainly determine the temperature distribution within the dam) and the water levels in the reservoir during 1997 are plotted. Besides the temperatures and water loads, the gravity load is also considered in the nite element analysis for the sake of the stress computation. The radial displacements at the crest and the upper gallery levels in the central part of the dam (block 10) are regularly recorded with the help of a pendulum. On the basis of the measured radial displacements, which are approximately in the upstreamdownstream direction, at the two points during 1997, a linear-elastic model without a crack was calibrated in the following

steps: . Step 1values of the material parameters were assumed and a displacement analysis of the threedimensional (3D) nite-element model was carried out with ADINA [2]. The displacements of the crest and the upper gallery in block 10 were computed at monthly intervals. . Step 2the computed displacements from the niteelement analysis were assumed to be related to the measured displacements as follows: y mx b 9

where x is the computed dam displacement, y is the

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measured dam displacement, and m and b are regression coecients. Linear regression analyses were performed to obtain the values of m and b for the crest and the upper gallery in block 10. . Step 3the values of the material parameters were revised and steps 1 and 2 were repeated until the values of m were suciently close to 1.0 for both the crest and the upper gallery in block 10. Further, the aim was also to achieve high values of correlation coecients approaching 1.0. It should be noted that the assumed initial thermal state (i.e. uniform temperature of 78C over the whole dam), which is also taken as the stress-free state, has no eect on the change of the dam displacements between any two times. The thermal eects were not considered in the rock. From the trial-and-error calibration procedure described above, the material parameters of the linearelastic damfoundation model were determined as follows: . Mass concrete: Young's modulus Ec=30 GPa, Poisson's ratio nc=0.167 and coecient of thermal expansion ac=9.5 106/8C. . Foundation rock: Young's modulus Er=24 GPa and Poisson's ratio nr=0.25. The linear regression relationships between the measured displacements and the computed displacements at the two points in the calibrated dam model were as follows: . Crest level of block 10: y 0X935x 15X1 mm (correlation coecient: 0.984; 0.6 mm). . Upper gallery in block 10: y 1X005x 3X9 mm (correlation 0.2 mm). coecient: 0.991; standard standard 10 error:

Fig. 6. Distribution of maximum principal stresses in MPa around upper gallery in block 10 in August 1997 under combination of gravity, water and temperature loads.

The distribution of the maximum principal stresses in the central part of the dam (block 10) around the upper gallery in August 1997 taking into account the gravity, temperature and water loads is shown in Fig. 6. There are tensile stress concentrations in the upper part of the downstream wall as well as the base (corner) of the upstream wall of the upper gallery. These are also the locations of the observed cracks. However, the maximum tensile stresses in these zones are not high enough to satisfactorily explain the formation of the cracks and, in particular, the increase of the crack opening with time. 6. Inelastic displacements 6.1. Observed inelastic displacements From the plots of the measured dam displacements shown in Fig. 7, it is evident that irreversible displacements are taking place in the dam. In fact, the constants in the regression relationships given by Eqs. (10) and (11) are approximately equal to the permanent displacements that have occurred since the time of the installation of the pendulum for the measurement of dam displacements at the end of the dam construction. 6.2. Possible causes The irreversible (i.e. inelastic) displacements may be due to the following processes: . Creep and shrinkage of mass concrete. . Expansion of mass concrete due to alkaliaggregate reactions. . Slips at construction joints. . Climatic changes.

11 error:

In Fig. 5, the measured displacements of the two points during 1997 are compared with the calibrated displacements, i.e. the computed displacements after being modied according to the above regression relationships. The dam displacements towards the downstream side are assumed to be positive. It should be noted here that the change of the reservoir level accounts for only about one-quarter of the seasonal change of the dam displacements at the crest level. Therefore, the temperature load has a dominant role in the deformation behaviour of the dam.

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Fig. 7. Plots of measured dam displacements during 19741997 showing steady increase of inelastic displacements.

. Joint slips and tectonic movements in foundation rock, etc. Normally, irreversible displacements are expected in a concrete dam during the rst few years of operation. However, some processes, e.g. alkaliaggregate reactions (AAR), are known to become evident only several decades after the end of the dam construction. Alkaliaggregate reactions cause an increase in the volume of the mass concrete. In the case of an arch or archgravity dam, the resulting arch compression produces a thrust towards the upstream side of the dam. Consequently, the alkaliaggregate reactions result in irreversible and steadily growing displacements of the dam towards the upstream side. The displacement measurements in the dam show the type of behaviour described above, indicating that

alkaliaggregate reactions are possibly taking place. At the same time, a more or less continuous horizontal crack was rst observed on the downstream wall of the upper gallery after about 25 years of dam operation. The crack tends to open more in summer and closes to some extent in winter. On a year-to-year basis, however, the crack opening has been gradually increasing with time at a rate of about 0.1 mm per year in the central part of the dam. 6.3. Investigation of crack stability The depth of the observed crack in the upper gallery is not exactly known. From the observations of some bore holes drilled to extract concrete samples (cores), the crack appears to be deeper than 1.5 m, whereas the minimum thickness of the concrete on the downstream side of the upper gallery is about 2.8 m. The crack

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Fig. 8. Energy release rate of mode I fracture for three dierent crack lengths in block 10 as function of volume expansion caused by alkaliaggregate reactions (AAR) expressed in terms of equivalent temperature increase.

has, however, not yet been observed on the downstream face of the dam. To judge stability of the observed crack, linear-elastic fracture mechanics calculations were carried out with ADINA [2]. For this purpose, an equivalent twodimensional model of the crown cantilever of the dam was used. The arch action was simulated by applying a distributed deection force acting in the upstream direction, which was determined on the basis of the arch stresses computed using the 3D model. For the fracture mechanics calculations, the loads taken into account were gravity, water pressure, temperature and the volume expansion of concrete due to possible alkaliaggregate reactions. TheenergyreleaserateG1 for mode I (tensile) fracture is plotted in Fig. 8 as a function of the volume expansion due to the AAR expressed in terms of an equivalent temperature increase. Three curves are shown for crack lengths equal to 25%, 50% and 75% of the thickness of the downstream wall of the upper gallery in block 10. It is clear that the value of GI increases rapidly once the volume expansion exceeds the equivalent of a temperature increase of about 108C. Moreover, the longer the crack length, the higher is the value of GI. This indicates that the observed crack is of an unstable nature. Therefore, it can be expected to eventually penetrate the whole thickness of the downstream wall of the upper gallery and become visible on the downstream face of the dam.

6.4. Three-dimensional damfoundation model with a horizontal crack To investigate the increasing irreversible dam displacements, a three-dimensional damfoundation model including a horizontal crack in the downstream wall of the upper gallery was used. When the AAR load was considered in this model, the portions above and below the crack did not come into contact throughout the year. This is compatible with the actual observation that the crack does not completely close at any time. Therefore, there was no need to model the contact process in the crack with contact surfaces. In the course of the nite element analysis, it was observed that the results obtained with a crack that extended fully from the upper gallery up to the downstream face of the dam yielded the most satisfactory results consistent with the actual measurements of the irreversible dam displacements and the crack openings. Therefore, only the results obtained with this model are presented here. It should be noted that, although the crack has not yet been reported on the downstream face,the fracture mechanics study indicates that the observed crack is of an unstable nature. 6.5. Analysis of dam with a crack including eect of AAR load In addition to the gravity, water and temperature

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Fig. 9. Comparison of computed displacements during 1997 from various 3D models with measured displacements (G, gravity; W, water load; T, temperature; and A, alkaliaggregate reactions).

loads, the volume increase due to suspected alkali aggregate reactions was also considered in the analysis. From Eq. (11), it is clear that the permanent radial displacement at the level of the upper gallery in block 10 is equal to about 3.9 mm towards the upstream side in 1997. Under the water load, the creep in the concrete, which occurred during the rst few years of the operation of the dam, resulted in a permanent displacement of the dam towards the downstream. For the average water level in the reservoir, the elastic radial displacement at the level of the upper gallery in block 10 is 0.8 mm. For the mass concrete used in the dam, the creep coecient for high humidity conditions is estimated as 1.0 based on CEB [3]. Thus, the permanent

creep displacement due to the average water load acting on the dam is 0.8 mm towards the downstream side at the level of the upper gallery in block 10. Hence, the permanent displacement at this location towards the upstream side in 1997 on account of the volume expansion caused by the AAR is about 3.9+0.8=4.7 mm. From the nite-element analysis of the 3D dam model, the expansion of the mass concrete equivalent to a uniform temperature rise of 18C results in a radial displacement of 0.25 mm towards the upstream side at the upper gallery in block 10. Therefore, the volume expansion due to the suspected alkaliaggregate reactions was estimated to be equivalent to a temperature

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Fig. 10. Deformed shapes of block 10 in central part of dam computed using models with and without a horizontal crack on downstream side of upper gallery (G, gravity; W, water load; T, temperature; and A, alkaliaggregate reactions).

increase of about 4.7/0.25=198C. In the analysis, the volume expansion due to the AAR was taken as uniform over the whole dam body.

The displacementtime histories of the crest and the upper gallery in block 10 during 1997 calculated using 3D nite element models with and without a

Fig. 11. Comparison of measured and computed crack openings on downstream wall of upper gallery in block 10 during 1997 (G, gravity; W, water load; T, temperature; and A, alkaliaggregate reactions).

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reactions signicantly increases the value of the tensile stress at the location of the observed crack. 7. Conclusions From the nite-element study, the following conclusions can be drawn regarding the behaviour of the dam: 1. The daily temperature changes aect only a very thin layer on the dam surfaces. Their inuence can be ignored in the analysis of a dam with thicknesses in the order of several metres. 2. The elastic part of the dam displacements can be satisfactorily explained with the help of a 3D niteelement model. 3. The seasonal variation of the temperature distribution makes the major contribution to the elastic part of the radial displacements of the dam. 4. The 3D nite element analysis with ADINA led to the identication of the volume increase produced by alkaliaggregate reactions as the cause of the formation of the horizontal crack along the upper gallery of the dam and the observed inelastic displacements. 5. Comparisons with the analysis using a 2D nite element model of the dam have shown that the growth of the observed crack and the inelastic displacements can be explained only with a 3D model. 6. The observed inelastic dam displacements and the measured crack openings agree well with the results of an analysis considering a volume expansion due to alkaliaggregate reactions equivalent to a temperature rise of about 198C until 1997. 7. The crack observed on the downstream wall in the upper gallery is of unstable nature. Therefore, the crack is expected to eventually penetrate up to the downstream face of the dam. References
[1] ACI. Mass concrete, ACI 207.1R-87. American Concrete Institute, Detroit, 1987. [2] ADINA R&D. ADINA user interface command reference manuals, Vol. I: ADINA model denition, Report ARD 96-2. Vol. II: ADINA-T model denition, Report ARD 96-3. ADINA R&D Inc., Watertown, MA, 1996. [3] CEB. Structural eects of time-dependent behaviour of concrete. Bulletin d'Information No. 215, Comite Euro International du Beton, Lausanne, 1993.

Fig. 12. Distribution of maximum principal stresses in MPa around upper gallery in block 10 in August 1997 under combination of gravity, water, temperature and AAR loads.

horizontal crack are plotted in Fig. 9 for the combination of the following loads: gravity (G), water (W), temperature (T) and alkaliaggregate reactions equivalent to a temperature rise of 198C (A). In the load combination G+W+T+A, permanent creep displacements towards the downstream side due to the water load (estimated as 1.3 and 0.8 mm, respectively, at the crest and the upper gallery in block 10) have also been taken into account. From Fig. 9, it is clear that the computed displacements at the crest as well as the upper gallery in block 10 agree well with the actual measurements when a volume expansion equivalent to a temperature rise of 198C is taken into account. The deformed shape of block 10 in August 1997 as computed with the model with a horizontal crack including the eect of the AAR load is compared with the one obtained with the model without a crack excluding the eect of the AAR load in Fig. 10. The crack openings computed for the load combination G+W+T+A during 1997 are compared with the measured crack openings in Fig. 11. The agreement between the two is quite satisfactory especially during the second half of 1997. The distribution of the maximum principal stresses around the upper gallery in block 10 for the load combination G+W+T+A in the model without a crack is plotted in Fig. 12. The stresses due to the AAR load have been reduced by a factor of 1.4 to approximately account for the relaxation of stresses caused by the creep in concrete. Comparing with Fig. 6, it is obvious that the volume expansion due to the alkaliaggregate