Crack Propagation Analysis in Concrete Gravity Dams Using Fracture Mechanics Concepts

Abstract

All concrete dams suffer from cracking which is caused by various factors such as construction, poor curing, volume changing in mass concrete and load application. These cracks may propagate and leading to significant change in the failure resistance of dam.<br><br> Recently, fracture mechanics has been advocated in papers, as an alternative means to assess dam safety. In this study, linear elastic fracture mechanics concepts were applied to assess the crack stability in ZAVIN Concrete Gravity Dam that is subjected to five various loading conditions in full and empty reservoir.<br><br> The two dimensional maximum section of ZAVIN Dam was modeled using FRANC2D software, which is specially prepared for fracture mechanics analysis. A finite element linear elastic fracture mechanics analysis in plain strain condition was used to determine the stress intensity factor at different crack positions and maximum circumferential stress to compute crack stability and kinking angle of cracks at each step of crack propagations in the dam body. The results of this study would be useful to prevent possible instability of ZAVIN and other concrete gravity dams.