Evaluation of Safety Margin for Shear Rehabilitation of RCC Dams

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Abstract

The growing increase in the number of roller compacted concrete (RCC) dams in all over the world due to their economy and construction speed in one hand and the considerable costs of their construction, new ideas on the construction and material selection for these structures are proposed continually. Since the number of horizontal construction joints in RCC dams is almost five to seven times the corresponding number in traditional dams and considering the fact that the shear stresses under static and dynamic loads are one of the most important stresses in this type of dams, and the joint retrofitting costs- which is almost ten percent of the total costs of the dam, this study aims at evaluation of the optimum place of these joints through nonlinear time history analysis of the finite element model of a prototype RCC dam. The analysis considers the soil-fluid-structure interaction between the dam and its foundation and reservoir. No need for seismic retrofitting of some joints, is one of the considerable outcomes of this study.

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