Abstract

The stability of dam foundations at great depth has always been a challenging problem concerned by designers. This study built a three-dimensional numerical model of the dam and foundation under a complex geological condition in the project area of the Chinese Kala hydropower station. The numerical model was imported into the finite difference software FLAC3D to conduct a numerical simulation. Overload and strength reduction methods were adopted to evaluate the stability of the dam foundation at great depth. The results indicated that the structural faults had an essential impact on the stability of the dam foundation. The stability analysis showed that the safety factor of the dam foundation is greater than 2.5, which met the standard’s requirements. The simulation results can provide a reference for the design and engineering reinforcement of the Kala dam foundation.

Highlights

  • The stability analysis and safety evaluation of concrete dams are critical in hydraulic engineering, especially for the dam foundations under complex geological conditions

  • It can be seen that the maximum displacement of the dam is 16.41 mm, which occurs at the top of the overflow dam section 6 (EL. 1,970 m)

  • Overall Stability of Dam Foundation When the strength reduction method is used to analyze the stability of the dam foundation, only the strength parameters of the rock masses and the structural interfaces are reduced

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The stability analysis and safety evaluation of concrete dams are critical in hydraulic engineering, especially for the dam foundations under complex geological conditions. Xu et al [10] developed a geometric modeling method for the geology and engineering structures incorporating the geological realities and mesh generation They performed a stability analysis of a dam foundation based on numerical analysis software such as FLAC3D. The numerical model of the RCC gravity dam is shown, which has 11 dam sections These dam sections are numbered as 1–11 from left to the right bank.

Modeling Results of the Holistic Model
Modeling Results of the Dam
Evaluation Methods
CONCLUSIONS
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
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