Research advance in safety analysis methods for high concrete dam

Abstract

High tensile stresses occurred in high concrete dams and in their foundation lead to the growing importance of their safety with the increase of concrete dam height. Without any exiting specification or successful experiences of concrete dams up to 300 m at home and abroad for reference, experts feel obliged to figure out how to perform safety analysis on high concrete dam. This paper involves the main contents and mechanical features of the safety analysis on high concrete dam and shows the current state and progress of the analysis methods. For the insufficiency and problems existing in normative methods, study on modern numerical method such as finite element method must be strengthened to find out the stress control criterion which is in accordance with the methods. Two aspects of the safety analysis of high dam—— local damage from material level and integral destruction from structure level—— should be considered. For the local damage, we should consider the non-homogeneity of material and strengthen the research of meso-damage mechanics. While for integral destruction of the system of high dam and its foundation, a study on non-strength theory should receive enough concerns. Further, attention should be paid to the research on the failure modes and criterions of high concrete dam failure analysis and safety evaluation, and the effect of uncertainty and classification of safety should be considered too.