Dam Location Research Articles

Experimental and numerical evidence on the influence of tidal activity on the effectiveness of subsurface dams

Subsurface dam is a technically feasible and widely used solution to prevent seawater intrusion (SWI) in coastal areas. The effectiveness of subsurface dams and the related environmental problems have been individually established, although static oceanic conditions are usually considered. In this study, sea boundary conditions, including static and tidal scenarios, were compared to comprehensively assess subsurface dams for SWI control and upstream groundwater pollution, thus extending previous findings. The index of fresh groundwater discharge was used as a proxy to assess the environmental problems associated with subsurface dams. Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations were performed to analyze the effects of dam height, location, and dispersivity. The results revealed that the effectiveness of subsurface dams could be described through a so called effective and increased discharge height range (E&IDHR), which was depending on dam location. Showing properties within the E&IDHR, subsurface dams could not only effectively prevent the invasive saltwater, but also increase the amount of fresh groundwater discharge relative to the scenario prior to dam construction. Tidal fluctuation significantly altered the E&IDHR, and the lower and upper thresholds of the E&IDHR were lower than those of the no-tide cases. The lower threshold was the minimum effective height, which was close to the saltwater wedge (SW) height determined by 95% isohaline (95% SW height) for the no-tide cases and the 20% SW height for the tide cases. This difference was attributed to intensive salt-freshwater mixing driven by tides. The upper threshold of the E&IDHR was usually close to 116% of the 5% SW height. Acknowledging the E&IDHR, applied studies may benefit from numerical and parametric uncertainties when designing subsurface dams, while still attaining optimal effectiveness to prevent SWI and upstream groundwater pollution.

Predicting and routing the sub-basin floods and investigating the reservoir dam location in flood risk reduction (case study, Zolachai Dam in West Azerbaijan)

Predicting and routing the sub-basin floods and investigating the reservoir dam location in flood risk reduction (case study, Zolachai Dam in West Azerbaijan)

Potential leakage paths at the dams constructed on karst terrains in Iran

Water leakage has been reported from several dams constructed on karst terrains in Iran. In this study the main reasons for dam leakage were identified by studying 10 examples: the Lar, Kowsar, Seymareh, Tangab and Shah-Ghasem dams with considerable leakage, and the Karun I, Karun III, Karun IV, Salman Farsi and Marun dams with negligible leakage. The potential leakage passage (PLP) is defined as those parts of a karst aquifer that transfer reservoir water downstream. The most important control on leakage is in the narrowest part of the PLP, the ‘bottleneck’, which depends mainly on the geological setting. At the dams with negligible leakage, sealing of the PLPs was found to be technologically and economically feasible by connecting all the edges of the grout curtain to the natural impermeable barriers. In the cases of dams with considerable leakage, wider PLPs were not completely sealed and the installed grout curtain did not fully connect to the impermeable rock. To reduce the risk of leakage and inform effective design of grout curtains, the characteristics of the PLP should be determined during the initial stage of dam studies, and geological and hydrogeological information should be incorporated in the ground model. This study highlights the significant risk of engineering project failures that can occur if hydrogeological conditions are not properly assessed, understood and managed early in development of dam location, design and construction.

Small dam planning as a water sources alternative in Sekaran Village, Bojonegoro Regency, Indonesia

Ineffective management of soil and water could lead to erosion and flooding during the rainy season, as well as drought and difficulty in obtaining water sources during the dry season. The rainfall during rainy season in Sekaran Village did not use yet optimally even the water availability was limited. The purposes of this research were to determine the location and to design the small dam in Sekaran Village, Bojonegoro Regency, as an alternative to increase water availability. The small dam was located and designed based on the existing regulation. The location of the small dam was determined based on the topography condition and the existing catchment area. The capacity and dimension of small dam were calculated based on the planned rainfall. The location of the small dam was chosen on bare land at coordinates of 7°6‘33.102“S and 11°38‘46.122“E. The analysis result of 10 years rainfall data showed that the planned rainfall was 155.4 mm for 5 years return period. Based on topography condition, the small dam was designed in square form with dimensions of 41 x 41 m and a depth of 2 m, at an elevation of 48.5 masl. The capacity of the small dam was 2894 m3.

Direct Integration of Numerous Dams and Reservoirs Outflow in Continental Scale Hydrologic Modeling

AbstractDespite the recent developments in continental‐scale streamflow and flood inundation modeling frameworks, effects of time‐specific and spatially explicit storage‐release dynamics of numerous dams and reservoirs remain underexplored. This paper fills this knowledge gap by directly inserting operational daily flow release data at 175 dam locations into a streamflow simulation of ∼1.2 million river reaches in the Mississippi River Basin (MRB), and therefore quantifying the effect of these regulations on streamflow and flood inundation extents. Using a streamflow routing model called the Routing Application for Parallel computatIon of Discharge (RAPID) and flood inundation mapping model called AutoRoute, two simulation scenarios were constructed respectively including and excluding the daily flow releases from those dams and reservoirs for a 10‐year period (2005–2014). Flood inundation maps were simulated for peak flow conditions at a ∼10‐m hyper spatial resolution. Kling‐Gupta efficiency (KGE) values show that streamflow model performance considerably improved when reservoirs were included in the modeled system, varying from 2% in the eastern region to 380% in the drier western region. Despite small variation of streamflow model improvement with reservoir release inclusion in the eastern region of the basin, the flow model was able to better capture observed peak flows. For a 1% change in streamflow, we observe a 0.8% change in estimated flood inundation. Comparisons to three observed flood events in the MRB demonstrate that the flood inundation estimates improve when percent change in streamflow is relatively high. Overall, inclusion of reservoir release resulted in substantial improvement in continental‐scale streamflow and flood inundation mapping.

Hybrid algorithms for geospatial analysis of dam location points in protective tasks for protected areas

Objective. In recent decades, criteria for identifying potential areas have evolved hand in hand with technological tools such as geographic information systems (GIS). However, the criteria for the preservation of protected areas are often not taken into account, thus causing damage to environmental biodiversity that can become irreparable. This paper presents the way of optimizing the process of locating key terrain points by developing a hybrid algorithm for geospatial analysis in QGIS. The goal is to speed up computational time, which is a critical variable for the entire key point detection process, and to suggest potential areas that do not pose a threat to biodiversity. Methods. The strategy used is based on two fundamental assumptions: identifying the tops of spatial objects (rivers) and analyzing the distances between spatial objects (rivers and adjacent territories). The tops extraction allows obtaining potential points, while the distance analysis allows selecting among them those points that are in the range acceptable for locating a dam, provided that the least possible damage to the biodiversity of the adjacent territory is caused. The algorithm was validated using the example of the hydrological network of Manicaragua, Cuba. Results. The results were compared in terms of the calculation time used, the number of valid tops extracted, and the percentage reduction in the total number of areas. This comparison was made using one, two and three vector layers (.shp) with spatial objects representing strategic protected areas. Conclusion. The results obtained show that the more representative the space data (.shp) used, the more effective the results obtained using the algorithm are in relation to environmental protection tasks. A reduction of up to 13% from originally detected key points has been achieved.

Факторы оценки альтернатив при проектировании и обосновании целесообразности строительства гидротехнических сооружений

Introduction. Reservoirs are important elements of the water resources regulation system; they make a substantial contribution to regional economies. A multi-criterial approach to selection of the best locations for dams is proposed in the absence of exhaustive information on the quantitative assessment of individual criteria. Morphometric characteristics of retaining reservoirs are among the most important tools for analyzing water resources; they represent a quantitative study designated for the mathematical simulation of the most important characteristics of a reservoir and their linking to the indices and parameters that allow to find out the hydrological conditions. The purpose of the study is to select and rank the factors needed to determine the priority locations for the construction of hydraulic structures. Materials and methods. A critical analysis of the research works is carried out; the hydrological, geological, topographical aspects and land use factors are reasonably selected, which allow to propose a hierarchical decision-making model for prioritizing areas where hydraulic structures can be designed. Results. AHP-TOPSIS, a hybrid method of the multicriterial analysis, was used. A reasonable choice of parameters and other factors is necessary to make decisions needed to determine the best area that will accommodate construction works, since it will reduce the amount of pre-project work in a particular region. The reservoir, whose parameters and coefficients are studied, will be thoroughly explored with a focus on its hydrology, topography, geology, and terrain use. The municipality of Manicaragua, belonging to the province of Villa Clara, Cuba, is considered as a case of the practical application of this approach. Based on the information provided by the geographic information systems and the hybrid method of the multi-criterial analysis, a pairwise comparison of alternatives for each of the established parameters was performed, the weights of alternatives were obtained, and the order of prioritization of the areas that can accommodate hydraulic structures was established. Conclusions. The analysis of the priority areas, made on the basis of the selected parameters used as the criteria and alternatives, allowed us (1) to analyze 12,591 districts of the municipality of Manicaragua as the potential locations of hydraulic structures, and (2) to reduce their number to 23 %.

Drivers, Impacts and Mitigation of Increased Sedimentation in the Hydropower Reservoirs of East Africa

Hydropower reservoirs are essential for the climate-neutral development of East Africa. Hydropower production, however, is threatened by human activities that lead to a decrease in water storage capacity of reservoirs. Land use/land cover and climatic changes are driving accelerated soil erosion in semi-arid East Africa, which ultimately increases reservoir sedimentation and decreases energy production. Sediment delivery dynamics at the catchment scale are complex, involving the interaction of multiple factors and processes on different spatial and temporal scales. A lack of understanding of these processes and their interactions may impede the efficiency of sediment mitigation and control strategies. A deep understanding of the processes of erosion and connectivity of the land to river channel, as well as storage of eroded material within hillslopes and floodplains, and sediment accumulation in the reservoirs supports selection of future dam locations and sustainable management of reservoirs. The sediment budget approach can provide such a holistic perspective by accounting for the various sediment sources, transport, sinks, and redistribution when the sediment is routed through that catchment. Constructing sediment budgets is challenging, but the potential for integrating a number of different techniques offers new opportunities to collect the required information. In East Africa, the spatial planning of dams is mainly dominated by political and financial motives, and impacts of land use and climate on the sediment transport dynamics are not adequately considered. Production of sediment budgets under different scenarios of land use and climate change should be an essential step when deciding the location and management strategies for dams. Selection of new hydroelectric reservoir sites must consider long-term scientific data on climate change, and the sediment budget components for sustainable land management planning, hydropower sustainability.

A Review: The Tectonic Perspective and seismic response of Darbandikhan Dam Stability and potential solutions

Darbandikhan dam is a rockfill dam constructed northwest of Iraq in the early sixties. Even though the dam is located in a mountain zone with high seismic influence, the dam was not designed to resist a high seismic motion. This study is a review of Darbandikhan dam current situation and the possible factors of its potential failure. The dam can be regarded as a vulnerable condition. Due to the unstable geologic formations and the existence of limestone and anhydrite which can impact the dam stability. On the other hand, rainfall dwindling and the temperature rising affected the hydrological system in the area. Climate change causes drought, desertification followed by a flood in a very short period. Therefore, the dam reservoir elevation has been diminished due to the reduction of the inflow. The dam has experienced a strong seismic motion in November 2017, it causes serious fissures on the dam road, failure on the left side slope and rocks toppling. The sliding of soil and the falling rocks in the dam lake when the earthquake hit the dam location, lead to clay accumulation which has prevented the gates to be opened. Serious and fast maintenance have to be implemented to fix the landslides and dam safety against earthquakes.

Minimizing Evaporation Losses from Small Reservoirs (Wadi Houran-case study)

minimizing the surface area of a reservoir during maximum evaporation losses period. A mathe-matical relationship linking the depth of water with the surface area of the reservoir has been formulated, and its integration can be used to estimate conservable water quantities. Reducing the water level in the reservoir to the minimum permissible level before the dry months has re-duced the evaporation losses by 65% and 51% for the two scenarios. These two scenarios have been conducted by assuming that the dry months start with the presence of the water level in the reservoir at a height of 14 and 12 m, respectively. On the other hand, evaporation losses during drought months have been decreased by 24%. By this technique, it can be possible to obtain wide areas suitable for agriculture, contributing to the economic and social development of the region. Also, Depth index(DI) suggested in this study and defined as the ratio of volume of the water in the reservoir to corresponding surface area, to compare the location of the best dam among the 13 proposed dams in Wadi Houran by reducing evaporation losses. The results of this index showed the best location was at DI=10.901 in DM 7, and the worst is at DI=2.425 in DM 8.

A systematic approach and software for the analysis of point patterns on river networks

AbstractMany geomorphic phenomena such as bank failures, landslide dams, riffle‐pool sequences and knickpoints can be modelled as spatial point processes. However, as the locations of these phenomena are constrained to lie on or alongside rivers, their analysis must account for the geometry and topology of river networks. Here, we introduce a new numeric class in TopoToolbox called Point Pattern on Stream networks (PPS), which supports exploratory analysis, statistical modelling, simulation and visualization of point processes. We present three case studies that aim at inferring processes and factors that control the spatial density of geomorphic phenomena along river networks: analysis of a synthetic dataset of points on a stream network, the analysis of knickpoints in river profiles, and modelling spatial locations of beaver dams based on topographic metrics. The case studies rely on exploratory analysis and statistical inference using inhomogeneous Poisson point processes. Thereby, statistical and probabilistic procedures implemented in PPS provide a systematic approach for treating and quantifying uncertainties. PPS offers a consistent numeric framework for modelling point processes on river networks with a wide range of applications in fluvial geomorphology, but also other disciplines such as ecology.

Hydrologic Assessment of Check Dam Performances in Semi-Arid Areas: A Case Study From Gujarat, India

In semi-arid India, managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is often used to enhance aquifer storage, and by implication, water security, and climate resilience, by capturing surface runoff, mainly through check dams implemented at the community level. Despite their extensive use, the design of these structures typically does not follow a systematic method to maximize performance. To aid in the improvement of check dam design parameters and location siting, we develop a dynamic tool, which integrates the daily water balance of a check dam with analytical infiltration equations to assess check dam performance measured as temporal dynamics of storage, infiltration, and evaporation. The tool is implemented in R environment and requires meteorological and hydrogeological data, as well as check dam geometry and nearby well-abstractions, if any. The tool is applied to a case study in Saurashtra in Gujarat, where field visits were conducted. Simulations show that typical check dams in the area are able to store a volume between three and seven times their storage capacity annually. Infiltration volumes highly depend on hydroclimatic and hydrogeological conditions, as well as the formation of a clogging layer, highlighting the importance of site selection and periodic maintenance. The tool is validated with data from a previous study in Rajasthan, where daily water balance parameters were monitored. Validation results show an average R2 of 0.93 between the simulated and measured water levels. The results are adequate to suggest that the tool is able to assist in check dam planning in semi-arid environments.

Lower Kaleköy Dam – A tailor made composite dam structure

AbstractWorldwide various type of dams are used to create reservoirs for multiple purposes. Particularly in usual cases, a single dam type is used to form a watertight barrier. Keeping safety and finance in mind, less challenging dam locations, that concerns with aspects like foundation conditions, seismicity at the dam sites, availability of construction materials, etc. are preferred. Ironically, where there is a demand for a reservoir, a suitable dam location is not always available. In those cases, these circumstances make advanced design of dam structures indispensable. An example of such a dam design is the Lower Kaleköy composite dam structure. The same consists of a roller compacted concrete gravity dam at the right bank, which is linked with one of the world's highest deformation joint to the very first asphalt core embankment dam in Turkey, situated on the left bank. The Lower Kaleköy Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP) constructed and operated by Kalehan Genç Enerji Üretim A.Ş. with an installed capacity of 500 MW, as part of the Beyhan Kaleköy HEPP cascade is located on the Murat River, a tributary to the Euphrat River in Eastern Turkey. This paper summarizes the design methodology developed by the design consortium (AFRY/Temelsu), headed by AFRY, for the tailored composite dam.

Removing tributary low-head dams can compensate for fish habitat losses in dammed rivers

Dam removal has been widely used as a river restoration approach; however, the effectiveness of removing low-head dams in tributaries for fish habitat compensation in a dammed river is still poorly understood. One major impediment to examining the ecological effectiveness of low-head dams is the short length of post-dam hydrologic, geomorphic and ecological observations. To circumvent this challenge, we used a one-dimensional hydro-morphodynamic model to simulate the changes in hydrodynamic features and riverbed elevation. The modeled outputs were then incorporated into a fish habitat model to assess the changes of habitat suitability after dam removal. One open question in dam-removal is the effect that extreme hydrological events have on the trajectory of the post-removal hydraulic, geomorphic and habitat change. Here we studied the changes of habitat suitability to a fish species Jinshaia Sinensis (J. Sinensis) in a tributary, where a low-head dam was recently removed, of the Jinsha River in China. Three scenarios of interannual hydrological variations based on observed flow records were simulated. The post-removal simulations showed that the flow sequence influenced the erosion and deposition rate of sediments but had little effect on net changes in bed elevation. After dam removal, upstream incision eroded the deposition sediments and reconnected the riverbed at the dam location within the first post-removal year. Stream hydraulics became more diverse with an increasing of riffles following the morphological response to the dam removal. The continuous changes in stream hydraulics improved the habitat suitability for J. Sinensis, as the percentage of suitable spawning habitat increased from 17% to approximately 68% before and 10 years after dam removal. The study demonstrated that removing a low-head dam can not only reconnect the passage for a migratory fish to migrate upstream tributaries for spawning, but also improve habitat suitability due to the morphological and stream hydrological responses following dam removal.

A simple method to assess the fragmentation of freshwater fish meta-populations: Implications for river management and conservation

Rivers are very vulnerable to fragmentation caused by the presence of man-made barriers. To restore river basin connectivity, numerous indices have been developed to calculate river fragmentation and optimise barrier mitigation actions. These methods usually calculate connectivity for whole river basins, but sometimes it is useful to analyse the connectivity for certain elements of interest. The main goal of this study was to develop a simple method to calculate the connectivity of specific riverine habitats or fish meta-populations.The framework of the Dendritic Connectivity Index (DCI) created by Cote et al. in 2009 was changed to develop the Population Connectivity Index (PCI). This index would depend on the number of populations, the total river length occupied by each population, the distance between populations, the dispersal capability of the fish species and the presence of barriers in the river. The outcome of the index is a percentage that measures the degree of connectivity in a meta-population. The PCI was tested in four Iberian fish species with different dispersal capabilities: Salmo trutta, Luciobarbus comizo, Anaecypris hispanica and Cobitis vettonica.The results show a natural connectivity between populations (without considering dams) of 7.95–47.48%. The most connected meta-population was L. comizo while the most naturally fragmented meta-population was A. hispanica. When large impassable dams were added to the index the results show a connectivity of 2.19–16.48%. Dams reduce connectivity between 5.37 and 30.99 points. Dams were ranked according to their impact in the fragmentation of each studied meta-population.This PCI allows to find out naturally isolated fish meta-populations and to assess the impact of dams in the fragmentation of fish meta-populations. It can also be used in dam prioritization decisions such as dam removals and new dam location selection. It also can aid in the creation of river ecological corridors between endangered or important fish populations.

Dam Location-Allocation under Multiple Hydrological Scenarios

Serious conflicts over water resources and the determination of new dams locations often happen in undeveloped transboundary basins. The resolution of these conflicts through equitable allocation depends on the uncertain distribution of the surface water. This study is an extension of the multi-objective model presented Roozbahani et al. Ann Oper Res 287: 323–349, (2020), adding a stochastic modeling approach to settle the water conflicts. We consider the uncertainty of the available streamflow through fitting a multivariate distribution on the historical runoff data in the each node of a basin network. Then, several streamflow scenarios are generated according to the fitted distributions, utilizing the NORmal-To-Anything (NORTA) algorithm. The water shares of the stakeholders, besides the location and capacity of required dams, are obtained using a three-step algorithm for each generated runoff scenario. The water allocation policy is to maximize the minimum ratio of a realized profit over the highest possible profit of the stakeholders from the water utilization, while satisfying the environmental water requirements in the entire basins. The results are analyzed using the frequency approach to determine the optimal location and capacity of new dams. Furthermore, the proposed approach is illustrated through a case study of water allocation modeling in the Sefidrud Basin, Iran. The outputs of the approach implementation show that a dam construction in a node (Node 10) has a substantial role in the sustainable water development of the basin as it is proposed by 52 runoff scenario, in which the 35% of them propose 1230 MCM capacity for the dam.

Recognizing Global Dams From High-Resolution Remotely Sensed Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Dams constructed by humans are important facilities for irrigation, flood control, and power generation. Recognizing the location and number of dams is crucial for studying the impact of human activities on ecosystem change. Although many countries and organizations have established their own dam datasets, it is only the tip of the iceberg of real dam construction. Therefore, effectively and accurately obtaining the geographic location of dams is still a significant problem to be solved. This article proposes an improved convolutional neural network (CNN) based framework to recognize global dams from high-resolution remotely sensed images. First, a dataset named the global dam detection dataset is built based on Google earth high-resolution images, and the dataset is used as the training and testing dataset for the CNN model. Second, an improved dam recognition method (HRLibra-RCNN) is proposed to detect dams on a global scale. Third, an application strategy for global dam recognition from large remote sensing images is established to recognize dams in seven regions around the world. Compared with two two-stage object recognition models (Faster-RCNN and Cascade-RCNN) and a single-stage target detection model (RetinaNet), the proposed method achieved the highest average precision of 79.4%, with the HRNet-40w backbone network structures achieving the highest average precision of 80.7%. The average precision of 70.8% and recall of 90.4% are achieved during the application stage. The dataset and framework developed in this study are the first attempts to combine remote sensing big data and the deep learning method to recognize dams at a global scale.

Analysis of Support Systems and Excavation Methods Based on Rock Mass Quality in the Intake Tunnel of the Jlantah Dam

Research on the classification of rock mass quality in the intake tunnel Jlantah dam has not been carried out in detail because the research focuses on the location of the main dam so that empirical excavation methods and support systems have not been carried out. The rock mass quality will be used as a parameter in determining the excavation method and tunnel support system that will be used in the Jlantah Dam intake tunnel. The investigation was carried out through engineering geological mapping, core drill evaluation, and supported by laboratory test data based on the Rock Mass Rating (RMR) and Q-system rock mass classification. The rock mass at the research location based on the RMR classification is in class IV (poor rock). Based on the Q-system method, a very poor rock class is obtained. Based on the analysis of the RMR and Q-system methods, the suitable support system for engineering geological conditions such as the intake tunnel of the Jlantah Dam is shotcrete 10 cm thick, steel set with a distance of 1.5 m and rockbolt length of 1.6 m with a distance of 1.5 m. The proper excavation method for the tunnel intake is top heading and bench.

ВЕКТОРНО-ПРОСТРАНСТВЕННЫЙ АНАЛИЗ СЛОЁВ ПРИЛОЖЕНИЙ ГИС ДЛЯ РАЗМЕЩЕНИЯ СТРАТЕГИЧЕСКИХ ТОЧЕК ПРИ ПРОЕКТИРОВАНИИ ПЛОТИН

The use of geographic information systems (GIS) is widespread in water resources management. One of the development stages in this area was the use of GIS information not only for matching and executing queries, but also for analyzing trends and making decisions using applications that provide spatial analysis. GIS provides the ability to process spatial information and represent it using a similar reality model that represents spatial features from a point, line, and polygon, and thematic information. Spatial analysis in GIS includes a set of procedures used to study the structure and territorial relations based on knowledge of the position and characteristics of geographical features of the corresponding variables. Subject: delineation of areas for potential location of dams with the use of geospatial algorithms for distance. The research is based on the hypothesis that from geospatial analysis of the distances between peaks extracted from the .shp layers of rivers and areas of great importance for protection, it is possible to delineate potential areas for dam construction. Materials and methods: literature sources and results of preliminary experimental studies are analyzed, experimental planning is carried out. Results: This study examines the use of algorithms for processing distances between points used in the field of service geography, in connection with the use of localization and distribution models. To do this, algorithms are compared using criteria such as processing time, the ability to create new layers, and creating tables of distances between objects belonging to different layers. Conclusions: This evaluation is performed in order to select the most appropriate algorithm for selecting suitable points that can be evaluated in future analysis of localization and dam construction.

Evaluation Method for Cohesive Crack Propagation in Fragile Locations of RCC Dam Using XFEM

Roller compacted concrete (RCC) dams own a large number of horizontal construction layers, which can easily lead to weak joints among layers and generate interlayer joints with different scales to reduce the dam bearing capacity. In this study, extended finite element method (XFEM) is used to simulate crack propagation, the finite element description is first taken on the strong discontinuity. Subsequently, the displacement function of the crack-tip in the quadrilateral element and the geometric determination method of the crack-tip strengthening region are established. Afterwards, the discrete form of the governing equation is derived and the XFEM increment discretization method of the cohesive crack with the crack-tip reinforcement is proposed using the virtual node method to represent the discontinuity of the fracture element. These methods are validated through simulating mixed-mode cracking of one-sided notched asymmetric four-point bending beam. Eventually, the proposed methods are applied to RCC gravity dam to study the development rule and propagation path of the interlayer joints, so as to evaluate the effect of different lengths of the interlayer joints on the dam structural performance. The estimated critical values of dam deformation are helpful to prevent the dam failure during long term operation.