BEHAVIOR PREDICTION OF A CONCRETE ARCH DAM

Abstract

The assessment of the structural stability and the behavior of the dam during construction and service period is of vital importance. In the paper are presented acknowledgments from the numerical analysis of concrete arch dam under static and hydraulic (seepage) ac-tion, by application of Finite Element models (code SOFiSTiK) and Neural Networks models (NeuralTools code). The aim of the task is to predict the dam behavior, that in-cludes calibration (based on monitoring data) and prognosis stage (short-term and long-term) focusing on variables such as radial displacements, crack displacements, piezometric levels and seepage. Coupled thermo-mechanical analysis and seepage analysis in time domain were carried out the for calibration and prognosis stage of the specified variables, in case of FEM modelling. The conclusion from the both numerical experiments (FEM and Neural Networks) is that the dam behavior, with adopted geometry and material, is within the expected mode.