IMPACT OF DAM ROCKFILL CREEP ON REINFORCED CONCRETE FACE STRESS-STRAIN STATE

Abstract

Introduction. Rockfill deformations are developed during long time. It is known that most intensive they are during construction period, but their increment continues also during operation period due to creep. Therefore, creep may affect the reinforced concrete face stress-strain state. Nevertheless, search for the scientific and technical information showed that the problem of creep impact on the face strength is poorly studied. Materials and methods. Studies of stress-strain state were conducted with the aid of numerical modeling by finite element method. They were carried out on the example of in-situ Toulnustouc dam, which deformations during the operation period are known by the results of field measurements. For simulation of the time-dependent dam, deformation increment process there was chosen a rheological model of soil and a technique was worked out for calculating the dam stress-strain state. At plotting the rheological model, the use was made of the simplest exponential relationship of time-dependent deformations. Results. The parameters of the rockfill model were determined by selection from condition of matching between the dam design displacements and the field data. For the considered dam, the rockfill creep has not resulted in cardinal changes in the reinforced concrete face stress-strain state. Conclusion. It was revealed that increase of the dam settlements due to creep has a favorable effect: they create additional compressive longitudinal force in the face.