Seepage and stress analysis of anti-seepage structures constructed with different concrete materials in an RCC gravity dam

Abstract

This study used the finite element method (FEM) to analyze the stress field and seepage field of a roller-compacted concrete (RCC) dam, with an upstream impervious layer constructed with different types of concrete materials, including three-graded RCC, two-graded RCC, conventional vibrated concrete (CVC), and grout-enriched vibrated RCC (GEVR), corresponding to the design schemes S1 through S4. It also evaluated the anti-seepage performance of the imperious layer in the four design schemes under the normal water level and flood-check level. Stress field analysis of a retaining section and discharge section shows that the maximum tensile stress occurs near the dam heel, the maximum compressive stress occurs near the dam toe, and the stress distributions in the four schemes can satisfy the stress control criteria. Seepage field analysis shows that the uplift pressure heads in schemes S3 and S4 descend rapidly in the anti-seepage region, and that the calculated results of daily seepage flow under the steady seepage condition in these two schemes are about 30%–50% lower than those in the other two schemes, demonstrating that CVC and GEVR show better anti-seepage performance. The results provide essential parameters such as the uplift pressure head and seepage flow for physical model tests and anti-seepage structure selection in RCC dams.