Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research paper

Precise simulation analysis of the thermal field in mass concrete with

a pipe water cooling system
Xinghong Liu a, Chao Zhang b, c, *, Xiaolin Chang b, Wei Zhou b, Yonggang Cheng b,
Yin Duan c
a
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University, 430072 Wuhan, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, 430072 Wuhan, China
c
Changjiang Survey Planning Design & Research Co. Ltd, 430010 Wuhan, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Thermal field of mass concrete is

simulated by the heat-fluid coupling
model.

Calculation parameters are identified
by a modified particle swarm
optimization.

Computation accuracy and efficiency
are verified by a simplified 3D con-
crete block.

Simulation results are in good
agreement with the actual monitored
temperature.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Thermal analysis is one of the main components in the design and construction of mass concrete
Received 10 June 2014 structures. A procedure for a heat-fluid coupling model (HFCM) is presented to simulate the thermal field
Accepted 22 December 2014 of mass concrete with a pipe cooling system, which can accurately reflect the temperature gradient near
Available online 29 December 2014
the pipe and the temperature rise along the pipe. Additionally, to make it suitable for the simulation of
forced-convection during pipe cooling, a modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) method, based
Keywords:
on particle migration is adopted for parameter identification of the DittuseBoelter equation used by the
Mass concrete
heat-fluid coupling model, according to field tests. To verify the accuracy and computation efficiency of
Thermal field
Heat-fluid coupling model
the method, a simplified 3D model is simulated and compared to other numerical models. Subsequently,
Cooling pipe system the model is applied to the analysis of a monolith of the Dagangshan high arch concrete dam in the
Monitoring temperature construction period. The actual climatic conditions, cooling pipe system, cooling schedule and thermal
properties of the materials are considered in the analysis. The simulation results indicate that the pro-
posed method can effectively simulate the cooling pipe state, water temperature rise along the flow, and
directional changes of the flow in the thermal field of mass concrete. Moreover, the temperatures
determined by the numerical simulation are in good agreement with the monitoring values. Findings in
this research show that the proposed HFCM is feasible and has attractive advantages in the simulation of
the thermal field in practical complex mass concrete engineering projects with cooling pipe systems.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

* Corresponding author. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, 430072 Wuhan, China. Tel.: þ86 27 6877 3778.
E-mail addresses: liuxhphd@163.com (X. Liu), gonopo2006@126.com (C. Zhang), changxl@whu.edu.cn (X. Chang), zw_mxx@163.com (W. Zhou), chengyg@whu.edu.cn
(Y. Cheng), duanyin_0224@126.com (Y. Duan).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2014.12.050
1359-4311/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
450 X. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459

Nomenclature Greek symbols

a thermal diffusivity (m2/h)
A cross-sectional area (m2) bw film coefficient of cooling convection (w/m2  C)
C specific heat (J/kg  C) bs equivalent film coefficient (w/m2  C)
Cw specific heat of cooling water (J/kg  C) ba heat transfer coefficient of concrete surface to air (w/
d pipe diameter (m) m2  C)
D hydraulic diameter of cooling pipe (m) l thermal conductivity (w/m  C)
e, f, g model parameters of DittuseBoelter equation lw thermal conductivity of cooling water (w/m  C)
hm thickness of heat insulating material (m) lm thermal conductivity of heat insulating material (w/
hp thickness of cooling pipes (m) m  C)
i segment number lp thermal conductivity of cooling pipe (w/m  C)
j step number r density (kg/m3)
L length of the cooling pipe (m) rw density of cooling water (kg/m3)
M numbers of temperature at each measuring point t time (d)
n the normal direction to the surface q adiabatic temperature rise of concrete ( C)
N numbers of measuring points q0 maximum adiabatic temperature rise ( C)
Nu Nusselt number y fluid viscosity of cooling water (pa s)
rin outer radius of the cooling pipes (m)
rout inner radius of the cooling pipes (m) Subscripts
Re Reynolds number c concrete
Pr Prandtl number w cooling water
q heat flux (w/m2) p cooling pipe
vw flow velocity of cooling water (m/s) m heat insulating material
Va wind speed (m/s) a air
Vw inflow volume of the water per unit time (m3/h)
T temperature ( C) Abbreviation
DT temperature difference ( C) CEM composite element method
Tf ambient temperature ( C) EHCM equivalent heat conduction method
T* measured temperature from field test ( C) FE finite element
Tt thermometer code HFCM heat-fluid coupling model
Tv cooling speed ( C/d) HDPE high density polyethylene plastic pipe
Tw temperature of cooling water ( C) MPSO modified particle swarm optimization
DTw inlet and outlet temperature difference of pipe ( C) TCSDD temperature control and decision support system

1. Introduction
In recent years, a large number of concrete dams over 300 m
high have been built in southwest China. In these projects, many
complicated technical problems need to be solved. Controlling
temperature-induced cracking in mass concrete structures is still
one of the main technical issues in the early design and construc-
tion period, due to the hydration heat, cooling conditions,
complicated outside environments and strong foundation re-
straints. Although strict measures are adopted to limit the tem-
perature rise within an acceptable level in mass concrete using an
intelligent temperature control and decision support system
(TCDSS) [1], thermal-stress-induced cracking often occurs unpre-
dictably and affects the durability and service ability of mass con-
crete. Hence, it is necessary to simulate the thermal field in mass
concrete and suggest some effective temperature control measures
to prevent cracking [2,3].
Since the construction of the Hoover dam, cooling by the flow of
water through embedded cooling pipes has become a frequently
used and effective artificial temperature control measure in the
construction of concrete dams. However, pipe cooling in mass
concrete is a double-edged sword, as an extreme temperature
gradient will be induced within the concrete near the cooling pipes
and will cause significant thermal stresses, which may be sufficient
for cracking [4,5]. A large number of techniques are reported in the
literature for designers to evaluate the thermal performance and to
simulate the cooling effect of the water flow. The methods that they
used can be classified into two catalogs: the approximately equiv-
alent method and the precise simulation of the cooling effect by
water pipes.
Neglecting the temperature gradient in the direction of the
cooling pipe, Zhu [6] introduced the effect of the cooling pipes as a
negative heat source and proposed an equivalent heat conduction
method (EHCM) to calculate the temperature variation in mass
concrete with conventional finite element mesh. Although this is an
approximation method, it requires only simple programming and
exhibits high computational efficiency. The equivalent equation is
widely used in practical engineering projects [7,8]. Kim et al. [9]
implemented a line element for the precise modeling of the cool-
ing pipe and applied internal flow theory to thermally analyze
concrete structures with pipe cooling. However, the requirement
that the line element for pipe modeling must be located at an edge
of or run across a solid concrete element may lead to in-
conveniences in the model preprocessing. Chen [10e12] took each
pipe segment as a sub-element embedded in the concrete element
and developed a composite element method (CEM), as well as the
solution of permeable problems, to address heat extraction from
mass concrete by cooling pipes, but the cooling water temperature
that rises along the length of the pipe is ignored. Moreover, the
refine mesh of the cooling pipes is complicated and considerable
computational cost is required.
In addition, pipe cooling is a spatial and temporal problem of
heat conduction in practical mass concrete projects [13]. To the best
of our knowledge, the simulation of the thermal field is often
 X. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459 451

difficult and unsatisfied when reflecting the temperature variation 2.2. Heat-fluid coupling model for water pipe cooling
in concrete because of complicated actual temperature control
measures, such as the starting time for the cooling delay, the switch In this study, the HFCM is performed to simulate water pipe
between water inlet and outlet each day, multiple cooling schemes cooling, as shown in Fig. 1, Pipe cooling of concrete is a typical
and the air temperatures. Hence, the application of simulation coupled problem of temperature and fluid [15]. Because of the flow
methods in engineering remains limited because of its inconve- of cooling water, the heat is taken away by the convective heat
nience and inflexibility. exchange. In the FE model, concrete is simulated by 3D solid ele-
In this paper, a heat-fluid coupling model is introduced to ments, and cooling pipes are modeled as additional heat-fluid line
investigate the thermal field of pipe cooling systems in mass elements, which is presented in Fig. 2.
concrete structures, and the detailed algorithm is given. A 3- In the numerical simulation of the fluid-structure interactions,
dimensional (3D) finite element (FM) analysis is conducted us- the water current in the cooling water pipes is considered one-
ing the heat-fluid elements, in which cooling pipes are modeled dimensional steady flow. The heat flux in the material can be
as additional line elements according to actual serpentine lay- described by Fourier's law
outs. Thermal parameters adopted in the heat-fluid coupling
model are identified by back analysis with a proposed modified
particle swarm optimization based on measured temperatures vT
from the field test. For mass concrete structures containing a q ¼ l (6)
vx
large number of embedded cooling pipes, the FE model does not
need to consider the practical sectional shape and size of cooling Based on Fourier's law and the energy conservation principle,
pipes, which provides significant convenience for the pre- the heat supplied to the pipe is equal to the heat absorbed by the
processing of the thermal analysis. Subsequently, the cooling flowing water. Assuming that the water flows from node i to node j,
effect, accuracy and computation efficiency are verified through a the heat exchange between the flowing water and concrete at node
simplified 3D model. In the final part, the simulation model is i and j can be expressed as
applied in a case study on a monolith containing cooling pipes of
an arch dam. Practical cooling schemes and complicated
boundary conditions are considered. The reliability of the pro- vTi v2 T
rw cw ¼ lw 2i þ rw bw ðTk  Ti Þ
posed method is investigated, and the simulation results tally vt vx
well with the monitoring values by temperature instruments,   (7)
vTj v vTj  
which shows that the heat-fluid coupling model can provide rw cw ¼ cw rw Tj  lw þ rw bw Tl  Tj
technical support for temperature control and crack prevention
vt vx vx
measures of a concrete dam with a pipe cooling system during The heat absorbed from the concrete by the flowing cooling
the construction period. water at node k and j is

2. Basic formulations of heat-fluid coupling model

 
qk ¼ bw ðTk  T i Þ; ql ¼ bw Tl  Tj (8)
2.1. Governing equation
The FE governing equations of the heat-fluid elements, which
Based on the energy balance principle, the general partial dif- satisfy the heat conduction equation and boundary conditions, can
ferential equation governing heat flow in a 3D solid medium is be deduced by the variation principle in the following form:
given as [14]
! h in o h in o n o
v2 T v2 T v2 T vq vT C T_ þ K T ¼ Q (9)
a þ þ þ ¼ (1)
vx2 vy2 vz2 vt vt
in which ½K is the thermal conduction matrix of the heat-fluid
where a ¼ l/cr is thermal diffusivity of concrete; l is thermal elements; fTg designates the nodal temperatures for a given FE;
conductivity; c is specific heat; and r is concrete density. The gov- _ is the variations of nodal tem-
½C is the specific heat matrix; fTg
erning equation is subject to the following initial conditions perature with respect to time; and fQ g is the nodal heat flow.
 Matrices ½K and ½C are calculated in the following forms:
T t¼0 ¼ T0 ðx; y; zÞ (2)

The three main boundary conditions at the external surfaces are

expressed as

T ¼ TðtÞ ðfirst typeÞ (3)

vT  
l ¼ b T  Tf ðsecond typeÞ (4)
vn

vT
l ¼ f ðtÞ ðthird typeÞ (5)
vn

where T(t) is the given temperature on the boundaries; f(t) is the

known heat flow on the boundaries. When the adiabatic condition
is satisfied, the condition applies when the heat flux is equal to
0 (vT=vn ¼ 0) through that boundary. Fig. 1. Heat transfer with internal flow.
452 X. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459

Pr ¼ 0.7e120 and the difference between cooling water tempera-

Fig. 2. Heat-fluid coupling element geometry.
ture and the air temperature outside the pipe should be no more
than 30  C. Obviously, the diameter of the cooling pipe used in mass
concrete engineering is relatively fixed. The typical outer and inner
radii of plastic pipe used in mass concrete is 0.016 m and 0.014 m,
respectively. The length of the cooling pipe is commonly between
100 and 300 m, and the flow velocity of the cooling water is
restricted to approximately 0.27e0.54 m/s. Thus we get L/
d ¼ 7142e21,428, Pr ¼ 9.45 and Re ¼ 10,254e11,544. All meet the
usage requirements. Therefore, Eq. (14) is reasonable and feasible to
express the forced-convection characteristic of water pipe cooling.
In addition, thermal resistance such as the cooling pipes itself
will reduce cooling effect. For high density polyethylene (HDPE)
plastic pipe, the heat transfer process of cooling pipes is essential to
simulate using the equivalent film coefficient of cooling water
convection bs, as shown in Eq. (16).

2 3 1
1 0 0 0 bs ¼ (16)
1=bw þ hp lp
rcAL 6
60 1 0 077
½C ¼ (10)
2 40 0 0 05 where lp is the thermal conductivity coefficient of the pipe. For a
0 0 0 0
metal pipe, lp ¼ 44.4w/m2$ C, for frequently used high density
2 3 polyethylene (HDPE) pipe in a mass concrete dam, lp ¼ 0.46 w/
B1 þ B2  B4 B1 þ B4 B2 0 m2$ C.
6 B1  B5 B1 þ B3  B5 0 B3 7
K ¼6
4
7 (11)
B2 0 B2 0 5
0 B3 0 B3 2.3. Parameter identification of DittuseBoelter equation

where B1 ¼ Alc =L, B2 ¼ bw Ai , B3 ¼ bw Aj , and B4 and B5 are defined
as:
Vw rcw if water flow is from j to i
B4 ¼
0 if water flow is from i to j
Vw rcw if water flow is from i to j
B5 ¼
0 if water flow is from j to i
in which A ¼ pD2 =4 is cross-sectional area of the cooling
pipe;Ai ¼ Aj ¼ pD=2 are the lateral areas of the cooling pipe asso-
ciated with the corresponding end i and j; B4 and B5 represent the
energy changes attributable to the mass transport that is lumped at
the outlet and inlet nodes, by which we can calculate the rise in the
water temperature along the flow; B2 and B3 represent the heat
convection of the cooling water. The degree of heat exchanged by
cooling water convection is mainly determined by bw, which can be
illustrated by the famous DittuseBoelter equation [16]:
bw d
Nu ¼ eRef Prg ¼
lp
in which Re ¼ dnw rw =y is the Reynolds number; Pr ¼ ycw =lw is
Prandtl number; and e, f, g are model parameters, which are related
to the flow characteristics of the cooling water. y is fluid viscosity of
the cooling water, which changes with its temperature Tw. The fluid
viscosity y can be presented by the experimental data, as shown in
Eq. (15).
e0:00366Tw
y¼  u 1
0:5412 þ 0:0195Tw  103
It is well known that Eq. (14) is widely used in practical engi-
neering to calculate the turbulent film coefficient of cooling water
convection in concrete, especially for smooth tubes. Accordingly,
there are some requirements for the use of Eq. (14) in mass concrete
with pipe cooling system, such as Re ¼ 10,000e12,000,
The parameters of the DittuseBoelter equation proposed by
Colburn [17] and McAdams [18] are achieved under ideal condi-
tions, but thermal field of mass concrete with water pipe cooling is
more complex and influenced by many unforeseeable factors.
(12)
Hence, it is necessary to identify the parameters of the Dit-
tuseBoelter equation based on field tests of the temperature
change in mass concrete with pipe cooling. In this paper, a modified
(13) particle swarm optimization (MPSO) algorithm based on particle
migration is used to identify the parameters of the DittuseBoelter
equation in HFCM model [19].
The MPSO is enlightened by the migration of nature species to
maintain its population diversity. A population of particles is
randomly sampled from the feasible space and the particles are
randomly divided into several sub swarms with several particles.
The evolution of each sub-particle swarm is independent. The lin-
early decreasing inertia weight, the linearly varying acceleration
factor and the self-adaptive mutation operator are intensively
considered with the evolution strategy. When the particle is
migrating, particle current location is introduced to not only the
new particle swarm, but also to the individual extremum. Hence, by
(14) using the particle migration strategy, the MPSO has more global
search ability and in the process of evolution, a particle migration is
performed to strengthen information exchange between each sub-
particle swarm, improve its diversity and prevent premature
convergence after several iterative times.
The objective function fitness (e, f, g) is chosen as 2-norm of the
simulated temperatures and the measured data of the field tests in
mass concrete, which can be illustrated by Eq. (17).
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
9ffi  
u8  T j  T j* 
u< X N =  i 
 i

(15) fitnessðe; f ; gÞ ¼ t ci 2 c ¼ max (17)
:N ; i 1jM T j* 

j¼1 i
in which, e, f and g are the parameters as shown in Eq. (14); Tij is
j*
simulated temperature of point i at time j; Ti is corresponding
temperature measured from the field test; DTw is inlet and outlet
temperature difference of the cooling water; and fitness (e, f, g) is
 X. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459
the corresponding fitness. The parameters of the DittuseBoelter
equation are identified according to the measured temperature
data of the field test in the #15 dam monolith at the Dagangshan
arch dam. To ensure the convergence in the MPSO calculation, the
size of the particle swarm is 40, the mutation probability is 0.4 and
the maximum number of iterations is 100. Through the above back
calculation e ¼ 0.026, f ¼ 0.748, g ¼ 0.361 are obtained. Fig. 3 gives a
comparison of the measured and simulated values at one
measuring point in concrete.
3. Model verification
3.1. A simplified 3D model of mass concrete with an internal HDPE
cooling pipes
Before the application of this method to solve practical engi-
neering problems, its performance is first verified by using an
example featuring a 3D model of mass concrete with an internal
HDPE cooling pipe. The basic geometric information, parameters
and material properties are presented in Fig. 4 and Table 1. All the
boundaries are supposed to be heat isolated and the calculation
time step length was 1 day. Water flows through an embedded
HDPE cooling pipe with an outer radius rout and an inner radius rin.
Accordingly, the FE mesh of concrete and the cooling pipes for the
HFCM is built, and the cooling pipe is modeled as a one dimensional
line element. Thermal distribution is then simulated by the pro-
posed HFCM method.
3.2. Cooling effect of water pipe
The simulation results of the concrete temperatures determined
by the HFCM model as well as the CEM model proposed by Chen
and the approximate EHCM given by ZHU, are presented herein.
Comparisons between the temperature distribution and the
average temperatures of the concrete block simulated by the three
different methods are shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The cooling water
temperature increment along the pipe is ignored in both the CEM
model and the EHCM model. However, it is intensively taken into
consideration by the HFCM model. As shown in Fig. 7, temperature
rise along the cooling pipe is reflected by the HFCM model. From
the above computation results, we can observe the following:
(1) The average temperature variation process simulated by the
HFCM model is in good agreement with the other two
frequently used methods. The HFCM model and CEM model
can accurately reflect temperature distribution near the
water cooling pipe. The closer the concrete is to cooling pipe,
the lower the temperature of the concrete. A large temper-
ature gradient is reflected by both of these two fine methods,
Fig. 3. Comparison of measured and back simulated temperatures at a testing point.
453
Fig. 4. Configuration of mass concrete block.
and the simulation results are tallied more with the actual
thermal field of the concrete with pipe cooling. The
maximum temperatures all occur at approximately the 5th
day by the three methods.
(2) The temperature calculated by the HFCM model is slightly
higher than those from the other two methods, because the
convection heat exchange effect becomes relatively weak as
a result of the rising temperature along the cooling pipe, and
the heat taken away by cooling water decreases, compared
with the other two computational models.
(3) In the early age of concrete, the temperature rises rapidly
because of the adiabatic temperature rise. At the same time,
the temperature difference between the concrete and the
inlet cooling water is increasingly large. Hence, convection
heat exchange between the concrete and the cooling water
becomes intense, and temperature difference between the
inlet and outlet cooling water is correspondingly large. With
the weakening of the adiabatic temperature rise, the tem-
perature difference decreases accordingly.
(4) Compared to CEM model, the HFCM model does not require
dense refining elements near the cooling pipes. In addition,
rather than multifarious modeling of the sectional shape and
size of the cooling pipe in CEM model, the HFCM takes that
into consideration in the governing formulations (Eq. (14)),
which will greatly simplify the pre-processing work in FE
modeling and make it easier to combine with other simula-
tion analysis.
4. Engineering application
The Dagangshan hydropower station is the fourteenth cascade
power station built on the Dadu River in southwest China. The
Dagangshan Dam is a double-curvature arch dam and the crest
elevation is 1135 m, with the corresponding normal water level of
1130 m. The dam consists of 29 monoliths in which four surface
outlets and three bottom outlets are used as a combined flood
discharge. The crown cantilever has a crest thickness of 10 m and a
base thickness of 50 m. The maximum height of the arch dame is
210 m, which includes approximately 3,220,000 m3 of mass
454 X. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459

Fig. 5. Temperature distribution in concrete by the three frequently used model (z ¼ 180 m).

Table 1 concrete. A large number of embedded HDPE cooling pipes were

Thermal properties of concrete and the cooling pipe.
Prosperities
Adiabatic temperature rise ( C)
Thermal conductivity (w/m  C)
Initial temperature ( C)
Specific heat (J/kg  C)
Density (kg/m3)
used to lower the temperature within the dam. In addition, climate
Concrete Cooling pipe
conditions at the Dagangshan dam site are very complicated.
The simulation of the thermal field and thermal stress was one
q ¼ 25  ð1  expð0:35tÞÞ /
of the major technical problems in the construction period, which
2.33 0.46
0 0 was related to multiple factors, such as concrete material proper-
1050 4187 ties, boundary conditions, casting schedule and the use of tem-
2514 1000 perature control measures. To ensure construction quality and
prevent thermal cracks, an intelligent temperature control and an
automatic decision support system (TCDSS) was introduced to su-
pervise and improve the cooling process of the mass concrete. In
this study, one of the monoliths numbered 15, was selected for
thermal analysis. All relevant temperature control measures and
required parameters were obtained from the TCDSS in this study.

4.1. Pre-processing and FE modeling

The #15 dam monolith located on the riverbed was selected as a

typical structure to conduct the HFCM analysis in this study. As it
was still under construction during this analysis, the simulation

Fig. 6. Temperature distribution and history curves for the three commonly used
model.

Fig. 7. Temperature rise along the cooling pipe by the HFCM. Fig. 8. 3D FE mesh model of the #15 dam monolith.
 X. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459 455

was performed from the first placement at the base (925 m) to the Table 2
elevation of 1020 m. The 3D FE mesh model for the simulation was Thermal and structural properties.

presented in Fig. 8. Because of the poor quality of the foundation Materials Concrete Rock Cooling
rock, several concrete blocks with a thickness of approximately 5 m C18036 C18030 C18025
water
were applied to replace the surface rock. A snakelike arrangement
Density (kg/m3) 2418 2417 2414 2894 1000
of the cooling pipe was used during construction period. The in-
Thermal conductivity (w/m  C) 2.64 2.74 2.78 1.92 0.161
cremental pouring process of concrete can be modeled using the Specific heat (J/kg  C) 1030 1050 1060 2300 4187
birth and death element in the FE model. The spacing of the cooling Coefficient of linear expansion 8.67 8.59 8.51 / /
pipes was designed to be 1.5  1.5 m (vertical and horizontal). (106/ C)
Poisson ratio 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.24 /
When a fresh concrete slab was poured, the corresponding ele-
ments in the finite element model were immediately made active
and included in the solution. In the development of the HFCM to
simulate the thermal field of mass concrete, a set of pre-processing m1, m2, m3 were model parameters that represent the heat gener-
programs was used to achieve the precise the location of the ation rate (Table 3), which can be obtained by the adiabatic tem-
cooling pipes and the refined meshing concrete. A detailed FE perature test and back analysis of the monitored temperatures in
meshing of the HFCM model was built, which can accurately concrete. The effect of the temperature of the concrete was
represent the actual state of the cooling pipe system, as shown in considered by Eq. (18), which can reasonably reflect the actual
Fig. 9. situation of concrete adiabatic temperature rise.

4.2. Thermal and material parameters 4.3. Initial conditions and boundary conditions

The thermal properties of the concrete placed in the Dagang-
shan arch dam, along with the rock foundation are summarized in
Table 2. To investigate the effect of the cooling pipes, the thermal
properties of the cooling water and cooling pipes (Table 2) were
used. During pipe cooling, the inlet water temperatures varied
within the range of 10e14  C, and the flow velocity of the cooling
water was within 0.22e0.64 m/s; hence, the values of inlet tem-
perature and flow were suitable for HFCM numerical analysis. To
solve the adiabatic temperature rise of concrete, Zhu [20] proposed
the following formula for the adiabatic temperature function:
qðt; TÞ ¼ q0 ½1  expð  m1 T m2 tm3 Þ
where q0 was the maximum temperature of concrete obtained by
the adiabatic temperature test; t was the concrete age in days; and
The construction of monolith #15 of the Dagangshan Dam
began on January 20, 2013, and it gradually rose with the progress
of construction. The initial temperature of the concrete was
assumed to be the placing temperature, according to the moni-
toring records. The initial stage of water cooling was applied
immediately after the completion of concrete pouring and lasted
approximately 20 days to reduce the maximum temperature. The
average inlet water temperature was 11  C, and the water flow was
approximately 1.2 m3/h. The water inlet and outlet were reversed
automatically every 24 h. In addition, the progress and some other
monitoring records of the initial 6 lifts were listed in Table 4.
(18) Because the construction of the selected monolith was always
behind the adjacent monoliths, the boundary condition for both
sides was assumed to be adiabatic. Increasing upstream and
downstream surfaces of placed concrete, as well as the top surface

Fig. 9. FE meshing of concrete and cooling pipes. (A). Practical layout of cooling pipes in a lift. (B) Concrete block. (C) Enlarged heat-fluid elements).
456 X. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459

Table 3 temperature histories of the concrete between the simulated re-

Adiabatic temperature rise parameters. sults and the actual monitored temperatures are presented in
Concretes C18036 C18030 C18025 Fig. 12. Overall simulated results obtained from the HFCM devel-
q0 ( C) 24.5 24.1 23.8
oped in this study were in good agreement with the monitored
m1 0.036 0.031 0.028 data, and the discrepancy between simulated and monitored values
m2 0.772 0.723 0.689 did not exceed 1  C, which further illustrated the accuracy of the
m3 0.415 0.387 0.368 HFCM model. The trend of the simulated and actual monitoring
cooling progress in mass concrete was in good agreement with the
designed cooling process. Obviously, the temperature recovery
of the concrete block and foundation were assumed to be directly observed at late ages by other researchers [8] was impeded with
exposed to the outside environment, where heat convection and the help of the automatic adjustment of water cooling by the
radiation occurred. The Dagangshan Dam site belongs to the TCDSS. The simulation results of the HFCM model can accurately
plateau climate zone in western Sichuan, China. The main meteo- reflect this cooling process in mass concrete.
rological factors are summarized in Table 5. Because of the stoppage of the cooling machine, the water
According to the monitoring temperature of the meteorological cooling of the sixth lift was delayed for four days after the concrete
station at the Dagangshan Dam site, the outside air temperature pouring. Consequently, the maximum temperature in the concrete
(Ta) of the daily mean values (Fig. 10) can be illustrated by the was approximately 30  C (Fig. 12(C)), which was greater than the
following fitted function: allowable temperature of 27  C. The temperature predicted by the
   HFCM can model this actual situation of water cooling, and give a
2p 12t good estimate of the thermal field. In comparison, equivalent
Ta ¼ 16:542 þ 8:25* cos  6:25 (19)
12 365 modeling approaches did not include this special situation.
To prevent surface temperature cracks caused by outside cold Tiny thermal cracks are frequently found on the structure sur-
waves and sudden drops in air temperature, a benzene board with a face in mass concrete engineering because of the extreme fluctu-
thickness of 3 cm was tied to the concrete surface. The corre- ations in the outside air temperature. Fig. 12(D) illustrates the
sponding equivalent film coefficient of the concrete surface while surface temperature variations at the first lift with different insu-
covered by heat insulating materials can be deduced by Eq. (20). lating conditions. The temperature change was not greater than
6  C when a benzene board with a thickness of 3 cm was tied to the
1 concrete surface. However, the change will be nearly 12  C when
bs ¼ (20) the concrete is exposed to air. Obviously, the proper adoption of the
1=ba þ hm =lm
benzene board as an insulating material on the concrete surface can
where lm ¼ 0.46w/m  C when the benzene plastic board was used. significantly reduce the temperature difference and lower thermal
The heat transfer coefficient ba of the concrete surface when stress on the concrete surface.
exposed directly to air can be defined as following form: The temperature distribution of several time periods in pouring
lift 2 computed by the HFCM model was presented in Fig. 13. It can
ba ¼ 23:9 þ 14:5va (21) be observed that the HFCM model can intuitively reflect the tem-
perature gradient near the cooling pipes at different cooling stages.
in which, va is the local wind speed (Table 5). The temperature gradient in concrete was not only reflected by
space but also closely related to the cooling schedule. Compared to
other locations, the temperature of concrete near cooling pipes is
4.4. Results and discussion
obviously lower and fluctuates more greatly. Consequently, the
more intensive of the hydration heat was, the larger the tempera-
Several thermocouples were embedded in each lift away from
ture gradient was in the concrete.
the cooling pipes to monitor the temperature change in mass
Fig. 14 provides a comparison of the actual monitored water
concrete during the construction period. The cooling progress was
temperatures from thermometers and the simulated water tem-
strictly controlled by the TCDSS and in accordance with the
peratures at the outlet of the cooling pipes. It is clearly indicated
designed cooling process, as shown in Fig. 11. A comparison of

Table 4
Pouring processes and typical monitored records during construction.

Pouring lift Elevation Pouring schedule Concrete consume (m3) Placing temperature ( C)

1 925e926.5 m January 20e21, 2013 1516.8 8.7

2 926.5e928 m January 20e22, 2013 1562.5 9.3
3 928e929.5 m February 5e6, 2013 1809.6 10.2
4 929.5e931 m February 7e9, 2013 1721.4 10.8
5 931e932.5 m February 28e29, 2013 1747.2 11.1
6 932.5e934 m March 10e11, 2013 1597.2 11.4

Table 5
Main meteorological factors at the Dagangshan dam site.

Month Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Average

Water temperature ( C) 6.7 8.3 11.2 14.3 15.7 16.5 17.4 17.6 15.8 13.6 10.4 7.4 12.9
Air temperature ( C) 8.0 9.7 14.3 18.4 21.3 22.4 24.5 24.3 20.8 17.4 13.1 9.1 8.0
Wind speed (m/s) 2.7 3.3 3.5 3.1 2.5 1.9 2.0 1.9 1.6 1.6 1.8 2.2 2.3
Ground temperature ( C) 9.9 11.9 17.0 20.8 24.2 25.3 27.4 27.4 22.3 19.2 15.2 10.4 19.2
 X. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459 457

that the temperature rise along the cooling pipes simulated by the
HFCM was in good agreement with the monitored temperatures,
which directly reflected the process of hydration heat taken away
by the cooling water. Fig. 15 illustrates the temperature histories for
the typical points (shown in Fig. 13) during the initial cooling
schedule. For point T1, which is away from the cooling pipes, the
temperature rose immediately, because of the hydration heat
within the concrete in the first 5e7 days after pouring. The
maximum predicted temperature reached approximately 25.9  C in
lift 2, and reached approximately 29.7  C in lift 6, due to delayed
water cooling. For point T2, which is near the water cooling pipes,
the temperature was lower and fluctuates more greatly, particularly
at early ages. With the decrease in concrete temperature, the heat
exchange between concrete and water became weak due to the
Fig. 10. Air temperature monitored by meteorological station at the Dagangshan dam decreasing temperature difference. The results indicated that the
site. temperature change near the cooling pipes was well estimated as a
result of the changed in the direction of the water flow every 24 h,
which makes the cooling effect more uniform by the HFCM model.

5. Conclusions

In this study, a heat-fluid coupling model (HFCM) is performed

for the thermal analysis of a pipe cooling system in mass concrete.
Based on the heat-fluid element, the cooling pipes are modeled as
additional explicit line elements. The cooling mechanism for the
HFCM is derived through the energy conservation principle. The
thermal parameters of the heat-fluid coupling model used in mass
concrete are identified by the modified particle swarm optimiza-
tion (MPSO) method based on field tests. Through a series of nu-
merical studies, the accuracy and computational efficiency of the
Fig. 11. The designed cooling progress of mass concrete in the Dagangshan concrete method are studied. Additionally, the thermal field of the #15
dam.
Dagangshan dam monolith during the construction period is

Fig. 12. Temperature variation in some typical slabs: (A) first lift, (B) third lift, (C) sixth lift (D) concrete surface with and without insulating benzene board (first lift).
458 X. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 78 (2015) 449e459
Fig. 13. Temperature distribution of several time period and typical points' position (lift 2).
Fig. 14. Temperatures of cooling water at outlet.
analyzed by the proposed model as an engineering application. The
concluding remarks are as follows:
(1) A reliable back identification of the thermal parameters is
conducted by the MPSO based on particle migration. The
temperature in mass concrete with pipe cooling computed
by the proposed HFCM model with the back thermal pa-
rameters coincides very well with the field testing values.
(2) The cooling effect, precision and efficiency of the proposed
HFCM model are verified through a simplified 3D finite
element model by comparing the calculated results with
other CEM and EHCM models. The temperature rise along the
cooling pipe is accurately reflected by the HFCM model.
Satisfactory computational accuracy and efficiency meet the
practical engineering requirements for mass concrete with
water pipe cooling by the proposed HFCM model.
Fig. 15. Temperature variation at typical points.
(3) The results from the thermal field simulation of #15 Dag-
angshan dam monolith during the construction period
demonstrate that the proposed HFCM model is suitable to
simulate various actual situations. Moreover, the simulated
results are in good agreement with the monitored temper-
atures. The temperature in concrete near the cooling pipes is
obviously lower, fluctuates more rapidly and more closely
aligns with the actual situation.
(4) The temperature gradient near cooling pipes and several
practical cooling situations are intuitively and precisely
modeled in mass concrete by the HFCM model, which shows
prospective advantages in the thermal field of mass concrete
with the water pipe cooling system. Furthermore, the ther-
mal stress near the cooling pipes, which is obviously greater
and makes cracking more likely to be initiated, will be
further researched.
Acknowledgements
This research investigation was supported by the National Basic
Research Program (973 Project) under Grant No. 2013CB035901
and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant
No. 50909078. We also sincerely thank Mr. Manling Li and Mrs.
Jingdong Shao for providing measured temperature data in per-
forming this research work.
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