Abstract
Cracks occuring on the surface or internal parts of fill-type dams have been a matter of great concern for dam engineers, because such cracks sometimes induce internal piping and lead to catastrophic damages of dams. In this paper, the problem of transverse cracks caused by the differential settlements in the longitudinal sections of high embankments is discussed through analytical investigations, and some considerations are given on effective methods for estimating and controlling cracks in the practical design and construction. Numerical analyses are performed by the finite element method assuming that the material is linearly elastic. In the present paper, correlations between the transverse cracks and the configuration of abutment surfaces such as the sharp change of the inclination are first clarified. In practical application of the finite element solutions, it is shown that these are very effective for the prediction of the cracking potential in actual dams. On the basis of above conclusions, a practical method of assessing the possibility of crack generation is proposed taking the tensile strain as a criterion.
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