Development of a computational tool for structural verification of dams

Abstract

Nowadays, dam safety is becoming more relevant in our society due to the importance of its functions (power generation, water supply, flood control) and the severity of the consequences in case of a serious breakdown. The "safety of hydraulic infrastructures" is one of the priorities according to the R&D Spanish State Program which is oriented to social challenges. Thanks to recent improvements in the modelling of dams as well as the evolution of computational resources, it is possible to perform more detailed analysis. However, most of commercial software is devoted to more common problems (e.g. buildings, bridges) without considering specific aspects of dams: concrete ageing process, joints during the construction process, contact with the ground or uplift pressure. The development of a specific application for dam engineering, both for construction phase and operating period, is the main objective of this project. The thesis presents the computational tool, which is based on finite element formulations and solves thermomechanical problem using weak coupling, designed for analysing the operating period. The proposed software is validated with a real case: La Baells dam. The computational results have shown excellent agreement with the obtained data during monitoring process.