Monitoring of Concrete Arch Dams during Construction and First Filling

Noemí Schclar Leitão , Eloísa Castilho

Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC)

Av. do Brasil, 101, 1700-066 Lisbon, Portugal

According to the Portuguese dam safety regulation (RSB) 1, on-site monitoring and structural condition
assessment of dams must be periodically performed. This article addresses the main aspects related to the
analysis of the observed behavior and assessment of security conditions during the construction of a
concrete arch dam and first filling of its reservoir.

The surveillance program is adapted to the lifecycle of a dam. During construction, temperature plays a
significant part in the cracking phenomenon of mass concrete structures, due to the heat of hydration of the
cement. Therefore, temperatures must be monitored. The initial reservoir filling is the first test of the dam to
perform the function for which it was designed for. In order to monitor its performance, the rate of filling is
controlled and instrumentation data is analyzed.

The monitoring system installed in this dam allows for a detailed knowledge of the actions and their
structural responses, namely: reservoir levels, air temperature, temperature at the boundaries of the
structure and inside the concrete, accelerations, planimetric and altimetric displacements in the dam and in
the foundation, relative displacements between concrete blocks, strains and stresses inside the concrete,
uplift at the dam foundation interface and quantity of water that flows through the foundation. The analysis of
the observed behavior and assessment of security conditions is performed by comparing the values
measured by the monitoring system with the values predicted by numerical models representing the
structural behavior of the dam, the material properties and the loads.

The method used for the thermal analysis is described in detail in this paper, along with the simulation of the
different actions. During construction, the thermal state of the dam is affected not only by climatic actions
but also by the construction methods and concrete’s constituent material. The thermo-chemical problem was
solved using a heat transfer model. An exponential function was calibrated taking into account the heat of
hydration of the cement at 3, 7 and 28 days and the function obtained was then used to establish the
chemical affinity relationship. The temperature distribution inside the dam was estimated using a 20 nodes
finite element model which considered the effects associated with air temperature, water temperature and
solar radiation. The temperatures predicted using the numerical model were compared with the
temperatures recorded in situ.

The calculated temperatures were then introduced as an action in the mechanical model, together with the
hydrostatic pressure and self-weight. The structural response of the dam was assessed using the same
finite element model as for the thermal action, however the contraction joints and the contact surface

1 - RSB, 2007 − Regulamento de Segurança de Barragens. Decreto-lei n.º 344/2007 de 15 de

outubro de 2007.
rock/concrete were included in this model and represented by 16 nodes interface elements. The viscoelastic
behavior of the concrete was considered according to the double Power law for concrete creep by Bazant-
Panula. The model was calibrated and validated in order to obtain a good match between the observed
radial displacements measured with the plumb-lines and the FEM results . Finally, calculated tensions were
compared with the registered ones by tension-meters. Also, these tensions were compared with the ones
determined based on strains registered by strain-meters, bearing in mind that in early ages of concrete there
are important nonlinear strains, therefore small periods were considered in order to assume constant
deformability of concrete.

Results lead to the conclusion that the numerical model of the dam is representative of its thermo-
mechanical behaviour and that the methodology described in this paper can be effectively used for the
safety evaluation of concrete arch dams.

1 - RSB, 2007 − Regulamento de Segurança de Barragens. Decreto-lei n.º 344/2007 de 15 de

outubro de 2007.