Cracking Behavior of a Concrete Arch Dam with Weak Upper Abutment

The cracking behavior and failure mode of a 78 m high concrete double-curvature arch dam with weak upper abutment are investigated through performing cracking analysis. The mechanical behavior of concrete is simulated using a smeared crack model, in which a combination of the compression yield surface and the crack detection surface with a damaged elasticity concept is employed to describe the failure of concrete. The arch dam with practical mechanical properties of the upper and lower abutments is firstly studied with emphasis on its cracking behavior during overloading. Then, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis is carried out to investigate the influence of the ratio of the mechanical properties of upper abutment to those of lower abutment on dam failure with prime attention placed on the failure mode. Simulation results indicate the adopted smeared crack model is well-suited to the crack analysis of concrete arch dam. It is shown that cracking is localized around the interface between upper and lower abutments, which leads to a fast crack growth in the through-thickness direction of dam and finally causes the dam failure. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis presents three types of failure modes corresponding to different ratio value, wherein Modes II and III should be avoided since the weak upper abutment plays a predominant role in the cracking and failure of concrete arch dam.