Effectiveness of Partially Cooling System for Massive Concrete Structures

Abstract

The authors have proposed a partially pre-cooling system for massive structures, such as gravity concrete dams. In this paper the effectiveness of the proposed method is discussed using finite element analysis. In the ordinary pre-cooling system, pre-cooled concrete is placed in the entire region (width and depth) of a massive structure. In the proposed system, pre-cooled concrete is placed only in the surface layer. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this system, a thermal stress analysis was conducted by the finite element method. The key parameters were the dimensions of the cooling system and cooling temperatures. The results show that the proposed system is rather more effective than the conventional cooling system in terms of the thermal stress condition of massive concrete structures. In addition, a cost benefit is expected, as the cost of the pre-cooling system is in proportion to the volume of concrete to be cooled.