Numerical Analysis Of Dams

This book gathers contributions from the 15th ICOLD Benchmark Workshop on Numerical Analysis of Dams. The workshop provided an opportunity for engineers, researchers and operators to present and exchange their experiences and the latest advances in numerical modelling in the context of the design, performance and monitoring of dams. Covering various aspects of computer analysis tools and safety assessment criteria, and their development over recent decades, the book is a valuable reference resource for those in the engineering community involved in the safety, planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of dams.

Expansion of water resources is a key factor in the socio-economic development of all countries. Dams play a critical role in water storage, especially for areas with unequal rainfall and limited water availability. While the safety of existing dams, periodic re-evaluations and life extensions are the primary objectives in developed countries, the design and construction of new dams are the main concerns in developing countries. The role of dam engineers has greatly changed over recent decades. Thanks to new technologies, the surveillance, monitoring, design and analysis tasks involved in this process have significantly improved. The current edited book is a collection of dam-related papers. The overall aim of this edited book is to improve modeling, simulation and field measurements for different dam types (i.e. concrete gravity dams, concrete arch dams, and embankments). The articles cover a wide range of topics on the subject of dams, and reflect the scientific efforts and engineering approaches in this challenging and exciting research field.

Most existing arch dams have been designed for seismic loading by static methods involving the use of seismic coefficients. Although there are no known examples of arch dams which have been seriously damaged by earthquakes, the need for more realistic seismic analyses is now well recognized, not only for new dams but especially in the context of the safety evaluation of existing dams. Fortunately, with the finite element method, engineers have a powerful tool for modeling the complex geometry and the nonlinear material behavior of a dam. However, there is still a major complication in the analysis procedure, namely the interaction of the dam with the reservoir and with the foundation during an earthquake. Interaction is a wave propagation problem involving transmitting boundaries. The State of the Art in engineering practice is to neglect wave propagation by modeling the water as incompressible and the foundation as massless. More advanced analysis methods using compressible water and foundation with mass have been available for some time. However, these methods are restricted to linear models, because they work in the frequency domain. On the other hand, there are also advanced nonlinear models for dams, but they can only be used in the time domain, usually with simple transmitting boundaries. In this report, which is based on an a doctoral thesis, rigorous transmitting boundaries in the time domain are developed which permit combining compressible water with n- linear dam behavior. The new numerical model is based on a systems-theory approach.

"This book presents simple approximate methods of analysing embankment, gravity and arch dams for design studies, preliminary designs, estimates of quantities, checking computational methods, and teaching. - Emphasis is placed on understanding the mechanical behaviour of the dam rather than the computational details."--BOOK JACKET.

This book describes how a number of different methods of analysis and modelling, including the boundary element method, the finite element method, and a range of classical methods, are used to answer some of the questions associated with soil-structure interaction.

This volume deals with numerical simulation of coupled problems in soil mechanics and foundations. It contains analysis of both shallow and deep foundations. Several nonlinear problems are considered including, soil plasticity, cracking, reaching the soil bearing capacity, creep, etc. Dynamic analysis together with stability analysis are also included. Several numerical models of dams are considered together with coupled problems in soil mechanics and foundations. It gives wide range of modelling soil in different parts of the world. This volume is part of the proceedings of the 1st GeoMEast International Congress and Exhibition on Sustainable Civil Infrastructures, Egypt 2017.