Constitutive Law of Structural Concrete Under Geochemical Processes

Computational Methods and Experiments in Material Characterisation II
85
Constitutive law of structural concrete

under geochemical processes
S. Hernndez, L. A. Romera & A. Mosquera
School of Civil Engineering, University of Corua, Campus de Elvia,
La Corua, Spain
Abstract
Geochemical processes are an important issue in dam engineering and affect
several classes of these structures. They are mainly produced by the chemical
interaction between alkaline components of the cement and concrete aggregates
triggering an expansive process that creates tensile stresses in the concrete and
therefore decreasing the safety level in the construction.
This phenomenon has been studied in two Spanish dams, an arch dam and a
buttress dam. In both cases a number of structural models were produced and the
behaviour of the dam was matched with the numerical results of the computer
analysis by defining quite sophisticated constitutive laws in the concrete in
accordance with recent theories.
Description of the Belesar dam
The Belesar Dam is an arch dam located in North West Spain. It has a height of
130 m and its maximum length at the top is about 275 m. A view the dam
appears in Figure 1.
Figure 1:
Picture of Belesar Dam.
WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences, Vol 51, 2005 WIT Press

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86 Computational Methods and Experiments in Material Characterisation II

Table 1.
Name
R0
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
Altitude (m) 330 312 292 272 252 232
Figure 2:
Location of displacement devices.
The dam possesses a quite complete system to obtain loading values,

temperature data and structural responses. A brief description follows:
Dam displacements are measured at six locations, distributed along dam
volume at different heights. Altitude values are indicated in Table 1, and
locations are presented in Figure 2.
Concrete and water data temperatures are obtained by thermometers located
at the exterior and inside the dam. The number of thermometer locations is
higher than 300 and provide a complete set of data temperatures along dam
thickness.
1.1 History of displacements in Belesar dam
Usual values of dam displacements are related to reservoir level and material
temperatures. Yearly variations present upstream displacement in summer, due
to higher temperatures and lower amount of impounded water, and downstream
values in winter due to the opposite situation.
Displacement data of the Belesar dam presented at the beginning this type of
yearly variation, but with an average value moving continuously upstream. The
process was quite slow from 1963 to 1979 but it increased in intensity since that
year. Historical evolution at position R0 (330 m) of locations 1 is showed in
Figure 3. Year numbers are on horizontal coordinate and displacements (mm) are
in vertical axis, with positive values corresponding to downstream values.
Figure 3:
Historical evolution of dam displacements at R0 in location 1.

87
Database of numerical values of the expansions was divided in three

historical divisions. Also information about the values of the deformation was
given not only at downstream and upstream sides of the dam but also at some
locations in the interior of the dam volume, precisely at the middle thickness of
it. The temporal sequence of data was: year 1963 to 1970; year 1971 to 1976;
year 1977 to 1997.
The locations where the expansion values were given are presented in figure 4
for year 1963 to 1970. Information for the following years was described
similarly.
a) Upstream.
b) Middle surface.
c)
Figure 4:
Downstream.
Values of expansion from 1963 to 1970 (x105).
Description of the Salas dam
Salas dam is a buttress dam located also in Galicia, between Span and Portugal.
It has a maximum height of 53m. and a few pictures and some details of the
construction appear in Figures 4 and 5.
Horizontal lines in Figure 6 represent layers corresponding to steps of dam
construction. Also grey areas are the zones where geochemical process is more
developed and it can be seen that zones C-9, C-7, C-5, C-3, C-2, C-6 and C-8 are
affected. Amongst them C-3 and C-5 contained areas with higher values of
expansions, leading also to horizontal cracks in the concrete, specifically a value
of 25710-5 m/m in C-5 and 14210-5 m/m in C-3.

a) Upstream view
Figure 5:
b) Downstream detail
Some views of Salas dam.
Constitutive law for concrete considering orthotropic

geochemical damping
The current level of knowledge of the expansion process inducted in concrete by

alkali-aggregate chemical reaction is partially unclear. One of the most updated
approaches in modelling such behaviour links the expansion evolution to the
compressive stress field in the material [1] and a few dams have been studied
with this procedure [2-3]. This formulation defines a set of parameters of
geochemical damping in the concrete. Clark, Hobbes and Charlword [4-7] stated
that such chemical phenomenon attenuates because the compressive stress of the
material and it almost stops when an upper value of stress is reached.
Nominating u the ratio of free expansion in the concrete, L the lower stress
level for free expansion and U the stress level which stops the phenomenon, the
expansion for a stress can be written as
= u
= u
U
log
L
if
log
=0
if
if
L U
Recommended values for L and U are
L ~_ 0,3 MPa
U ~_ 5 8 MPa

(1.a)
(1.b)
(1.c)
89
a) Upstream left side.
b) Upstream right side.
Figure 6:
Elevation of Salas dam.
Dams have different stress level at each direction, therefore seemed logical to
consider different level of attenuation at each coordinate axis and therefore three
damping parameters x, y, z were defined


y = y
x = x
z = z
(2)
being = 10-5 m/m and x, y, z geochemical damping coefficients.
Constitutive law for concrete in Belesar dam
A finite element model was created to analyse the dam containing the following
number of isoparametric hexahedral elements: Arch dam, 1952; Abutments, 255
Foundation rock, 1343.
Figure 7:
Shows the discretization.
The structural model was subjected to two-load combination representing the

worst scenarios for the dam.
Combination A: Selfweight + Water pressure (330 m) + Tmin + Expansion field.
Combination B: Self weight + Water pressure (285 m) + Tmax + Expansion field.
Structural analysis was carried out with the commercial code COSMOS/M [89]. The values of the geochemical damping parameters were obtained fixing the
value of u = 6 MPa and adopting a new condition in order to avoid excessive
stress values in any direction.
x max + y max + z max

3
= 6MPa
(3)
and
U
x max
(4.a)
U
y max
(4.b)
U
z max
(4.c)
x max U
x =1
and
if
x max U
x=
y max U
y =1
and
if
y max U
y=
z max U
z =1
and
if
z max U
z=
Condition (3) assures than the criteria is not biased at any direction and x, y, z
are obtained by an iterative process resultant of applying expression (3) and (4).

91
The complete definition of materials required the value of elasticity modulus.

An extensive test carried out for specimen of the Belesar dam allowed to identify
a value of E for long duration loads. The set of mechanical data were
Concrete:
E = 17.000 MPa
= 0,25
Foundation rock type 1:
E = 37.000 MPa
= 0,25
Foundation rock type 2:
E = 12.500 MPa
= 0,25
According with the definition of the geometrical damping each load

combination produces different values of the set x, y, z. For the load
combinations considered in the study the results turn out
Combination A:
x = 0.810-5 m/m C
y = 10-5 m/m C
z = 10-5 m/mC
y = 10-5 m/m C
z = 10-5 m/mC
Combination B:
x = 0.610-5 m/m C
Comparison between computational results and real

displacements in Belesar dam
Structural analysis of the finite element model was carried out considering load
combinations A and B with the expansion field in years 1963, 1970, 1976, 2001.
The numerical values of the displacements were compared with those provided
by the monitoring system of dam located as indicated in Figure 2. The next
figures represent together the actual displacement from 1963 to 2001 and the
lines corresponding to the results of the numerical model. Line defined by points
1, 3, 5, 7 corresponds to combination A while line between points 2, 4, 6, 8 is the
output produced by combination B.
Comparison between computational values and actual displacements was
made at the following points.
Location 1:
Level
R0, R1, R2
Location 2:
Level
R0, R1, R2, R3
Location 3:
Level
R0, R1, R2, R3
Location 4:
Level
R0, R1, R2
One of the resultant graphs is included in Figure 8.
Constitutive law for concrete in Salas dam
Considering that the buttresses C-3 and C-5 that were the most affected by the
geochemical expansions and they had almost similar geometry only a buttress of
intermediate height was used in the study with the dimensions indicated in
Figure 9.
Figure 8:
Comparison between
displacement.
Figure 9:
computational
results
and
actual
Dimensions of buttress selected.
Structural analysis was carried out using a finite element model using
hexahedral elements. The discretization contained 12057 nodes and 2565
elements, and represented the buttress and the foundation rock.
6.1 Constitutive law for concrete in the case with two layers with
geochemical expansions
The first case under study corresponded to the situation with two layers affected
of geochemical expansions and the structural model used in the analysis appears
at Figure 11.
Figure 10:
Figure 11:
93
3-D view of finite element model.
Structural model with two affected layers.
Weight of the concrete.

Hydrostatic pressure at a height of 836 m.
A value of geochemical expansion of 25710-5 m/m. according with data.
The first step of the study consisted in carrying out structural analysis
considering the concrete as a linear material.
Geochemical damping coefficients egax and egay were considered identical
due to the stress distribution in the buttress which is very two-dimensional.
Therefore the expression became.
x = ega y = ega z =
being = 10-5 m/m C.


Values of elastic modulus E for the materials included in the model were the
ones already used in a previous technical report and appears in Table 2.
Table 2:
Dam concrete
Values of elastic modulus.

Type 1
Type 2
3 105
3 105
Type 3
2.54 105 2.54 105
Concrete in affected layers 2.6 105 2.6 105 2.1 105

Foundation rock
3 105
Type 4
2.1 105
1.5 105 2.54 105 1.27 105
The first type corresponds to the linear material. Type 2 is similar to the
previous one but is used to consider greater flexibility of the foundation rock.
Types 3 and 4 are similar to the formers but diminishing the value of E in order
to consider the effect of continuous loads.
Figure 12:
Structural model showing cracks location.
The structural analysis started considering the complete structural model of

Figure 11 and that step was defined a phase 0. The numerical results shown
higher tensile stresses. In places where they were greater than R = 21 kg/cm2 a
crack was defined and a new structural analysis was worked out with the updated
structural model. This procedure gave way to more phases where new cracks
were defined until the process finally converged. The structural more showing
the locations of cracks appears at Figure 12.
The numerical results for the maximum values of stresses obtained in the
analysis appears in Table 3.
6.2 Constitutive law for concrete with geochemical expansions in a layer
Structural model associated at this case is presented in Figure 13. The set of
loads included in the analysis were:

95
Weight of the concrete.

Hydrostatic pressure at a height of 836 m.
Geochemical expansions of a value of 14210-5 m/m.
Table 3:
Maximum values of stresses (kg/cm2).
Tensile stress (kg/cm2)
Compressive stress (kg/cm2)

Material
Type1
Type2
Type3
Type4
Type1
Type2
Type3
Type4
Phase 0
36.60
36.50
27.80
27.70
53.40
59.80
51.10
51.50
Phase 1
35.50
35.50
27.00
27.00
54.30
54.30
43.90
44.00
Phase 2
27.40
27.40
21.80
21.70
62.90
63.00
45.80
46.20
Phase 3
26.40
26.20
20.10
20.10
62.90
63.00
46.90
46.90
Phase 4
21.00
21.00
19.00
19.00
62.90
63.00
46.90
51.50
Figure 13:
Structural model for a layer with geochemical expansions.
The procedure for identifying the geochemical damping coefficient was

identical to the previous paragraph and finally the resultant value was
ega = 0,07. The set of materials and the value of the elastic modulus were
those already mentioned.
Structural analysis was carried out in several phases because the higher values
of tensile stresses required define cracks inside the structure. Finally the process
converged with the cracks location described in Figure 14, which were similar to
the real cracks appearing in the dam.

Figure 14:
Cracks location.
Table 4 shows the maximum values of stresses along the process.

Table 4:
Maximum values of stresses (kg/cm2).
Tensile stress (kg/cm2)
Compressive stress (kg/cm2)

Material
Type1
Type2
Type3
Type4
Type1
Type2
Type3
Type4
Phase 0
117
117
97.80
97.80
98.30
98.0
82.20
82.00
Phase 1
108
109
92.00
93.00
115
116
100.00
101
Phase 2
54.4
54.6
44.00
44.30
87.20
87.90
77.20
77.80
Phase 3
23
22.90
19.60
19.20
93.80
99.60
89.29
95.19
Phase 4
17.5
17.20
15.40
14.90
92.70
92.70
88.15
93.80
Conclusions
The following conclusions can be extracted from this research.

a)
Geochemical process constitutes a loading that significatively effects stress

distribution and safety level in dams.
b)
Constitutive law for the concrete based on defining geochemical damping

coefficients can be an efficient approach to reproduce dam behaviour.
c)
Values of damping coefficients depend on the dam typology.
References
[1]
Lger, P., Tinawi, R. & Mounzer, N.; Numerical simulation of concrete

expansion in concrete dams affected by alkali-aggregate reaction: state-of-

[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
97
the-art. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 22, n 4, pp. 692-713,

1995.
Tanner, D.T.; The use of monitoring and finite element analysis in
evaluating remedial measures at TVAs Hiwassee dam. Proceedings of the
International Conference on Alkali-Aggregate Reactions in Hydroelectric
Plants and Dams, Fredericton, N.B., 28 Sept.-2 Oct., 1992.
Yeh, C.H., Zipparro, V.J., Kaltsouni, M., Wagner, C., & Niznik, J.;
Fontana emergency spillway, case study. International Workshop on Dam
Safety Evaluation, Grindelwald, Suiza, 26-28 April, Vol. 1, pp. 187-198,
1993.
Clark, L.A.; Modelling the structural effects of alkali-aggregate reaction
in reinforced concrete. ACI Materials Journal, 88 (3): 271-277, 1991.
Hobbs, D.W.; Cracking and expansion due to the alkali-silica reaction: its
effects on concrete. Structural Engineering Review, 2(2): 65-79, 1990.
Charlwood, R.G.; A review of alkali-aggregate reactions in hydroelectric
plants and dams. Hydropower and Dams, 1(3): 73-80, 1994.
Charlwood, R.G., Steele, R.R., Solymar, Z.V. & Curtis, D.D.; A review of
alkali-aggregate reactions in hydroelectric plants and dams. Proceedings
of the International Conference on Alkali-Aggregate Reactions in
Hydroelectric Plants and Dams, Fredericton, N.B., 28 Sept.-2 Oct., 1992.
COSMOS/M 1.71 version. Users Manual, SARC. Santa Monica,
California, 1994.
Romera, L.E. & Hernndez, S.: Resolucin de modelos estructurales de
elementos finitos con el programa COSMOS/M. Universidad de La
Corua, 1997 (in Spanish).


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Computational Methods and Experiments in Material Characterisation II