STUDY OF UPLIFT PRESSURE EFFECT IN ROLLER COMPACTED

CONCRETE GRAVITY DAM.

Hichem Mazighi1
Mustapha Kamel Mihoubi 2
Khaled Ghaedi3
Zainah Ibrahim4

ABSTRACT

In recent past, researches have done to properly investigate the uplift pressure effect at
the base level of concrete dams, in particular for a cracked-base situation under static
conditions. This paper attempts to implement two and three-dimensional Finite Element
(FE) Models for nonlinear static analysis. To aid the aim, Kinta Roller Compacted
Concrete (RCC) gravity dam is selected as a case study and FE ABAQUS software is
used to investigate the responses of the dam under ful reservoir hydrostatic pressure and
uplift effect as well as the effect of different densities of the dam for the stability purpose.
In addition, Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) model is conducted to monitor the crack
propagation in the dam. The results show that, the uplift pressure affects considerably the
relative displacement more than the hydrostatic pressure. The relative displacements
increase when the concrete density of the dam goes up unlike the maximum and
minimum principal stresses and crack propagation.

INTRODUCTION

Dam stability analysis is an important factor before and after construction. The
hydrostatic and uplift pressures can generate tensile stresses near the upstream and the
foundation faces successively, possibly exceeding the strength of the material and
causing a horizontal crack or opening of construction joints. These huge structures
normally have cracks in practical service caused by previous earthquakes, construction
conditions, or temperature effects (Barani et al., 2016). For a concrete dam under its
probable maximum flood, the hydrostatic pressure acting inside the crack reduces the
resistance and increases the penetration of water which exerts a uplift pressure (Zhu and
Pekau 2007).

The water pressure inside the cracks greatly reduces the structural strength of the
concrete gravity dams (Bhattacharjee and Leger 1995).

Many researchers have analyzed the effect of the crack propagation in concrete dams
(Bruhwiller and Saouma 1995, Plizzari 1997, Slowik and Saouma, 2000; Javanmardi et
al., 2005; Pekau and Zhu, 2008; Shi et al., 2013; Pandey et al., 2014; Ghaedi et al., 2015).

1
Phd student, Laboratory Water Resource Mobilization and Enhancement (LMVR), National High School
for Hydraulic (ENSH), BP 31 Blida, ALGERIA, h.mazighi@ensh.dz
2
Prof., Laboratory Water Resource Mobilization and Enhancement (LMVR), National High School for
Hydraulic (ENSH), BP 31 Blida, ALGERIA, mihkam@ensh.dz
3
Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Malaysia; Hormoz Beton
Firm, Bandar Abbas City, Iran, khaledqhaedi@yahoo.com)
4
Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Malaysia, zainah@um.edu.my

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 1

The FE analysis technique is the most commonly used method of analysis for different
hydraulic structures, including dams.
Skrikerud and Bachmann (1986), have studied the crack propagation of the Koyna
gravity dam by using single crack model. The results showed that there was a relationship
between aggregate forces and surface of openings. Ayari (1990) investigated the fracture
mechanics based model and discrete crack closure model for Koyna dam under dynamic
loading in transient condition.

Guanglun et al., (2000) proposed a mathematical model based on the nonlinear crack
band theory to investigate the dynamic fracture behavior of gravity dams in two-
dimensional FEM.
Also, they presented the finite element remesh for the front cracks via shifting the
element edge couples of cracks in direction of the tensile stresses. The smeared crack
model was used to inspect the nonlinear dynamic response of dams considering reservoir
water effect under earthquake excitations (Mazloumi et al., 2012 ; Ayari, 1990).

Zhu and Pekau (2007) employed and adopted the Incremental Displacement Constraint
Equations (IDCE) model along the crack to consider the behavior of dynamic contact
states in the cracks.

The damping model of IDCE was validated in dynamic contact conditions for flexible
and rigid bodies. The obtained results revealed very attractive occurrences such as peak
rocking direction, jumping and large damping effect of multi cracks on the peak residual
sliding. Researchers also discussed about seismic behavior of dams by implementation of
two-dimensional finite element modeling, (Calayir and Karaton, 2005; Akkse and
Simsek 2010, Jiang and Du, 2012; Mazloumi et al., 2012, Zhang et al., 2013, Paggi et al.,
2013; and others. However, the effects of base crack opening on dams have been
neglected in the above studies.

Ghaedi et al., 2016 analyzed the shape and size of the effects of the gallery on RCC dams
considering opening inside the dam body under earthquake excitation. Meanwhile, the
interaction of the reservoir dam with the stationary foundation is implemented. For this
purpose, two dimensional (2D) Finite Element Model (FEM) is used for nonlinear
dynamic analysis by means of finite element software, ABAQUS. In addition, Concrete
Damaged Plasticity (CDP) model is also implemented to inspect the tensile damage of
the dam during earthquake excitation. Kinta RCC dam of Malaysia is considered as a
case study in analysis.

Based on the above literature, many researchers have considered various aspects of dams
analyses. However, it seems that the simultaneous effect of uplift pressure and concrete
density of dam body has not been thoroughly considered. Therefore, present paper tries to
investigate the concurrent effect of uplift pressure, hydrostatic loading and concrete
density of dam body in 2D and 3D FE modelling on dams.

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 2

 THEORETICAL MODELING

Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) Theory

The linear assumption may not be suitable for seismic analysis of the RCC dams (Zhang
and Wang, 2013). In order to explain the complicated mechanical response of the
concrete materials under seismic excitations, many constitutive approaches have been
proposed including damage model, anisotropic damage and isotropic damage model. A
fundamental constitutive model was proposed by Lubliner et al., (1989) and modified by
van Mier and Fenves, (1998).

The method explaining the nonlinear behavior of each combinatorial material in a

multiphase composite material is generally used in the cracking analysis for concrete
dams. This model factorizes the uniaxial strength functions into two divisions to stand for
the permanent degradation of stiffness and deformation. The model assumes two major
failure mechanisms for concrete materials, the first for cracking and the second one for
crushing in tension and compression, respectively.

In the incremental theory of plasticity the strain tensor ( ) is divided into two parts
including the elastic strain ( ) and plastic strain ( ) in which for the linear elasticity
e p

can be written as:

=e + p
(1)
The variables ( , ,k ) are assumed to be identified at time (t). With mentioned
e p

information, for stress tensor the following can be obtained:

= (1 d ) = (1 d )E0 ( p ) and d = d (k ) (2)
In which d is the scalar stiffness degradation variable which can be in the range of 0
(undamaged) to 1 (fully damaged); E0 is the undamaged elastic stiffness for concrete
material. The failure mechanism of the material associated with the damage, thus,
reduction of the elastic stiffness that supposed a function of the internal variable k
including of the compressive and tensile variables, namely k=(kt , kc). Function of
damages consisting tension (dt) and compression (dc) which are nonlinear functions
computed by uniaxial response in compression with practical data. Hence, the effective
stress is determined as:

= = E 0 ( p ) (3)
1 d

Modeling Cracking in a Gravity Dam

The Sg. Kinta Dam project is part of the stage II development of the Ipoh Water Supply
on mainland Malaysia that is located approximately 12 km from the city of Ipoh, which is
turn located about 200 km north of Kuala Lumpur. It is the first Roller Compacted
Concrete (RCC) dam which is located in Malaysia (Allan et al., 1999, Ghaedi K. et al.,
2015). A finite element representation of the Kinta RCC dam including the foundation is
presented in Figure 1.

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 Figure 1. Dam body foundation system in 3D FEM

In this case study, the uplift and hydrostatic pressures illustrated in Figure 2 that are
considered to evaluate the static analysis of the dam.

The drainage system is neglected to study the effect of uplift pressure on the stability of
the dam in the most devastated case

Figure 2. Principal loading applied to the dam

The modeling is developed using the finite element software, ABAQUS (version 6.14).
This software is used for different nonlinear static and dynamic analysis such as water
wave and seismic loadings. The boundary conditions of the dam in 3D are shown in
Figure 3

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 Figure. 3. Boundary conditions of the model

The models 3D isoparametric elements are implemented to discretization of the Kinta

dam. The boundary conditions of the dam in 3D is shown in Figure. 3 and the details of
discretization can be seen in Table 1 (GHD, 2002).

Table 1 : Material Properties of the Kinta RCC Dam

Characteristics of the Discretization

Section Dam Foundation

Number of node 8547 6528

Number of element 7200 5250

Element Type C3D8R C3D8R

Material properties

Material properties Foundation RCC Body

Poissons ratio 0.2 0.2

Young modulus 0.30E+11 0.23E+11
E (N/m2)
Mass density 2650 2386
(Kg/m3)

Tensile strength DTS 2.25 2.5

ft (MPa)

Tensile strength DTS 2.25 2.5

ft (MPa)

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 5

The different densities of concrete of RCC dam body defined in Table 2, are considered
to evaluate the static analysis of the dam.

Table 2 : Different case study of concrete in the Kinta RCC dam depending on the binder
content for the corresponding density

Cases 1 2 3
Mass density (Kg/m3) 1800 2000 2300

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Relative Displacement Responses

The relative displacement in both horizontal and vertical direction due to hydrostatic and
uplift pressures respectively of the dam heel confirm that the maximum value in X
direction is 0.14 cm and 0.46 cm for Y direction. As the values indicated, the difference
of 69.5% occurred for relative displacement for Y direction in compared to X direction.
The state of the relative displacement of the dam heel is indicated in Figure 4.

Fig. 5 shows the displacement as a function of time from 0 pressure to the peak at the
dam heel due to the hydrostatic pressure and the pressure respectively.

a) Displacement due to hydrostatic pressure

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 6

 b) Displacement due to uplift pressure

Figure 4. Relative displacement of the dam heel

0.0016
0.0014
Displacement (m)

0.0012
0.001
0.0008
0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
Time (s)
a)
0.005
Displacement (m)

0.004

0.003

0.002

0.001

0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
Time (s)
b)

Figure 5: Displacement time history analysis of the dam heel

a) Hydrostatic effect b) Uplift pressure effect

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 7

Stress

The maximum and minimum principal stresses for Kinta RCC dam in 2D and 3D model
are illustrated through the figures 6 and 7. As indicated in these figures, the maximum
stress for is 2.430 MPa and the minimum stress is 3.45 MPa.

a) Max. Principal Stress

b) Min. Principal Stress

Figure 6. Stress on dam in 2D

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 3
Max.
2

Max. Primcipal Stress (MPa)

Min.
1

0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08
-1

-2

-3

-4
Time (s)

Figure 7. Time history analysis of maximum and minimum principal stresses

Tensile Damage and Crack Pattern in RCC Dam Body

The crack propagation of the dam body is observed at 3 levels of the dam body and
formed from the upstream face which propagates toward downstream side. It is because
of the pressure applied in the crack due to hydrostatic pressure. The most critical cracks
occurs in the heel elements owing to the concurrent effect of hydrostatic and uplift
pressures in those elements as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Tensile cracks in the dam body due to Mutual effect of hydrostatic and uplift
pressure

The relative displacement of the dam heel due to hydrostatic and uplift pressures for the
three cases are investigated and illustrated in figures 9 and 10. It shows that when the
concrete density of dam body increases the relative displacement increases too for both
directions.

Table 3 indicates the peak relative horizontal and vertical displacements of the Kinta
RCC dam for the 3 cases.

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 9

 Table 3: Peak relative horizontal and vertical displacements of the Kinta RCC dam for
the 3 cases.
Cases / Displacements (mm) 1 2 3

Horizontal 0.17 0.17 0.20

Vertical - 0.42 - 0.42 - 0.45

a) = 1800 kg/m3

b) = 2000 kg/m3

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 10

 c) = 2300 kg/m3
Figure 9. Relative displacement of the dam heel due to hydrostatic pressure

a) = 1800 kg/m3

b) = 2000 kg/m3

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 11

 c) = 2300 kg/m3
Figure 10. Relative displacement of the dam heel due to uplift pressure

The stresses in the RCC dam body for the 3 cases are also investigated and illustrated in
Figures 11 and 12. It is shown that the maximum and minimum principal stresses are
inversely proportional to the concrete density of dam body, when the density increases
the maximum principal stress on the foundation decreases and the same for minimum
principal stress.

a) = 1800 kg/m3

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 12

 b) = 2000 kg/m3

c) = 2300 kg/m3
Figure 11. Maximum principal Stress on dam in 2D

a) = 1800 kg/m3

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 13

 b) = 2000 kg/m3

c) = 2300 kg/m3
Figure 12. Minimum principal Stress on dam in 2D

The damage propagation of the Kinta RCC dam is inspected for different conditions, the
starting point of the cracking is formed upstream face and it propagates toward
downstream side, it is observed when the concrete density of dam body increases over the
dam becomes more stable as Figure 13 shows.

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 14

 a) = 1800 kg/m3

b) = 2000 kg/m3

c) = 2300 kg/m3
Figure 13. Tensile cracks generated in body dam under the simultaneous hydrostatic
pressure and uplift pressure effect without drains.

Copyright 2017 U.S. Society on Dams. All Rights Reserved. 15

 CONCLUSION

In this study an attempt has been made to inspect the concurrent effect of hydrostatic and
uplift pressure as well as density changes of the dam body using 2D and 3D models. For
this purpose, Kinta RCC dam located in Malaysia has been chosen and nonlinear time
history analysis has been conducted. The obtained results have been presented in terms of
bottom nodal and relative displacement, tensile crack pattern, maximum and minimum
principal stresses. Based on the analysis of 3 different cases of density changes of dam
body, the following conclusions can be written:

- Nodal displacement of the heel in vertical displacement due to uplift pressure is

69.5% greater than the horizontal displacement due to the hydrostatic pressure.
This shows the importance of effect of uplift pressure in analysis of concrete
gravity dam.
- Different densities do not significantly changes the maximum and minimum
principal stresses of the dam.
- The critical cracks happen at the heel zone when the hydrostatic and uplift
pressures are the most highest.
- As density of the dam body increases, the displacements in both directions
increase.
- As density of the dam body increases, the tensile damage decreases.
- A techno-economic study must be done to choice the best variant to reduce the
occurrence of crack. In this regard, there are many solutions among them such as
grout injection which increases the concrete density of dams.

In general, from above discussions it can be concluded that the uplift pressure affects
considerably the analysis of concrete gravity dams and must be taken into
consideration mostly in relative displacement and crack propagation, also the
concrete density of dam body must be selected carefully.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge those responsible for the civil engineering department of

the University of Malaya for the cooperation and support for the implementation of
Research Internships and fruitful exchange of information.

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