Research on Temperature Control and Anti-cracking Simulation for Xiaowan Concrete High Arch Dam

Thermal load is a main load just inferior to water pressure. Thermal creep stress is an important stress reference data of hydropower engineering design, and it is the important design criterion of preventing cracking. Crack will appear if thermal creep stress is beyond the allowable thermal creep stress of corresponding age of concrete, which will affect the safety of dam. Xiaowan concrete arch dam¿s temperature control and anti-cracking measure is crucial important to assure the dam¿s normal construction and safe operation as the highest double curvature arch dam being constructed. This paper adopts 3D FEM to simulate the whole process of temperature field and thermal creep stress of 22# dam section of Xiaowan high arch dam during construction. In the simulation, thermal and mechanical properties, concrete construction, temperature variation of environment, crown filling and water impoundment orders are considered. The simulation results accord with the common rules of high arch dam. The maximum transverse directional thermal creep stress and downstream directional thermal creep stress are both less than the allowable horizontal tensile stress and temperature crack will not appear. The results are valuable to the design of temperature control and anti-cracking measure.