Three-dimensional FEM Analysis Of The Changling Arch Dam Before And After Structure Reinforcement

The stone masonry arch dam is a relatively good model of dam in hydraulic engineering. There are many virtues, for example saving material, being able to make full use of the material strength and using local materials and so on, therefore, it is now being widely used in the small and medium sized water conservancy projects. With the service years increasing of arch dams constructed in early years, the reinforcement of some old dam has been becoming a new topic for water workers, in addition to the construction of new dam. Generally speaking, reinforcing an old dam is sometimes more complicated than building a new dam.This article describes the common diseases of the arch dam and detailed expounds the commonly used methods of structural analysis of arch dams, such as independent arch method, arch cantilever method, finite element method. The large commercial software ANSYS is adopted to calculate the dam stress, deformation and dynamic characteristics (frequency and modal shape) of the Changling arch dam before and after structure reinforcement. Reinforcement effect is given according to the comparative analysis of calculation results. Some reference value may be provided for the structure reinforcement of the arch dam and the study of calculation of arch dams.The main contents of this article are as following:1. The traditional calculating method of arch dam and the principle of finite element method are given with their own advantages and disadvantages. Finite element method is used for the Changling arch dam analysis.2. The Changling arch dam analysis is simulated with FEM program ANSYS and Stress state and deformation are discussed under every operating condition before structure reinforcement.3. The reinforced arch dam is calculated with FEM program ANSYS according to the strengthening plan. Reinforcement effect is given based the comparative analysis of stress and deformation.4. Some reference value may be provided for the structural dynamic analysis and reinforcement of the arch dam based the contrast of dynamic characteristics (modal analysis) before and after reinforcement.