Investigating Stage Construction in High Concrete Arch Dams

Concrete arch dam is a complex geometric structure and designing such a structure requires experience and high knowledge. One of the important parameters in designing concrete arch dams is the tensile stress in arch concrete material. The static analysis results of high arch dam structure depend on structure analysis model, intensively. Stage construction is needed to be focused in modeling high arch dams. In this study, the necessity of considering stage construction in static analysis of dam structure is focused. Modeling stage construction uses Birth and Death technique of elements. Therefore, six stage construction models are provided including applying dam wall weight outright, two stage application including odd and even monoliths, 4-stage application, 8-stage application, 14 stage applications and 24 stage application. The applied structure analysis is finite element method, in this investigation. Increasing construction stages results in decreasing wall cumulative strain energy. Considering 8 and 14 stage constructions results in 2.6% and 1.3% errors in estimating strain energy. Finally, it is clear that considering stage construction results in decreasing maximum tensile stress and changing the location of maximum tensile stress, too. Dam designers can apply the provided methodology.