Authors: ZHANG Yan-hong, HU Xiao (China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, Beijing 100048, China)

Abstract: The Wudu Reservoir is an important project on Fujiang River, whose dam is designed to be a roller compacted concrete (RCC) gravity dam. The flexural bending test for two-graded and three-graded RCC prism core samples of the Wudu RCC Gravity Dam under different initial static load cases were carried out. At the same time the flexural strength of concrete and the crack expanding process were analyzed by the methods of meso-mechanics and damage mechanics. The test results indicate that the strength of concrete with different kinds of grade is influenced by the initial static loads and the load speed in different degrees. For the two-graded concrete, the dynamic strength amplification factors fall into a range between 1.45 and 1.53 under different pre-static loads, the dynamic strength increases with the increase of the initial static load ratio when the initial static load is up to within 80%. For the three-graded concrete, the dynamic strength amplification factors fall into a range between 1.27 and 1.41 under different pre-static loads and the dynamic strength decreases with the increase of the initial static load ratio when the initial static load is up to within 80%. The concrete of Wudu RCC Gravity Dam is somewhat over-strengthened. The calculated results of the dynamic flexural strength amplification factors under different initial loads are approximate to the test results.

Key words: gravity dam, roller compacted concrete, dynamic flexural strength, pre-static load, load speed

Published in: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 42, No. 10, 2011
Article ID: 0559-9350 (2011) 10-1218-08