Experimental And Numerical Study Of RCC Dams Strengthened With Reinforcement In Monolith For Seismic Resistance

China is one of the countries which possesses large amounts of hydropower resources in the world. 80% of the resources are stored in Southwestern China which also suffers more dangers from high intensity earthquakes because of the impact of the Central Asia and Europe Pacific seismic belt. With the development of water resource in Southwest of China located in the earthquake active zones, a series of high roller compacted concrete gravity dams (RCC) are planning to be built in areas. For example, the design ground accelerations reach to 0.3995g and 0.394g for the Jin'anqiao and Longkaikou roller compacted concrete gravity dam, respectively. Earthquake safety of dams has become one of the key questions in many engineering realities.The model test study and the nonlinear finite element analysis on reinforcement-strengthened seismic mitigation measures of Jin'anqiao RCC dam is carried out in the paper. The effect of the allocated positions, numbers and forms of the reinforcement bars on starting crack state, crack propagation, crack penetration and the entire safety is numerically simulated. The results show that it is effective to appropriately adopt the reinforcement measures for seismic resistance of dams. The main contents of the paper are organized as follows:(1) The characrisitics and component of the material were given. The design and analysis of the model material experiment were also described. The simulation theory and deign of the model dam sections were inroduced. Main influence factors in the model test were analyzed, such as damping, Poisson ratio, high-frequency modes, size of boundary, constraint conditions etc. Based on numerical analysis, several correction coefficients were used to correcting the conversion of test results and response of crude model in the paper.(2) Sectional experiments of the dynamic model were made to Jin'anqiao RCC dam and the results of the experiments were analyzed and compared. Four typical sections, such as water retaining dam section, overflow dam section, factory dam section and scouring dam section were included in the model test. Non-seismic measure and steelbar-strengthening measure of each monolith were considered respectively. The effect of the reinforcement bars on starting crack state and the entire safety of the dam was studied. (3) Based on ADINA8.2 software, the nonlinear finite element analysis on reinforcement-strengthened seismic mitigation measures of Jin'anqiao RCC dam is carried out in the paper. The effect of the allocated positions, numbers and forms of the reinforcement bars on starting crack state, crack propagation, crack penetration and the entire safety of the water-retaining monolith is numerically simulated by the concrete model based on nonlinear theory and fracture mechanics.(4) By multifactorial analysising the model test results and numerical conclusion, the paper shows that it is effective to appropriately adopt the reinforcement measures for seismic resistance of dams.