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Multiple step method of design with shape optimization of Gravity dam across
Bellary Nala

Conference Paper · February 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4609.7687

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 National Conference on “Make in India-An Opportunity for Emerging Engineering Technologies”,
5th to 6th February 2016, S.G.Balekundri Institute of Technology, Belagavi.

Multiple step method of design with shape optimization of Gravity dam

across Bellary Nala
Shreedhar R*, Sreedevi R**

* Associate Professor, KLS Gogte Institute of Technology, Udyambag, Belagavi email:rshreedhar@git.edu

**Assistant Professor, East West Institute of Technology, Bengaluru email: 20sreedevi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT the dam. Such a dam is generally straight in plan, al-

Gravity dams are solid concrete structures that maintain though sometimes, it may be slightly curve. The line of
their stability against design loads from the geometric the upstream face of the dam or the line of the crown of
shape, mass and strength of the concrete. The design and the dam if the upstream face in sloping, is taken as the
evaluation of concrete gravity dam for earthquake reference line for layout purposes, etc. and is known as
loading must be based on appropriate criteria that reflect the “Base line of the Dam” or the “Axis of the Dam”.
both the desired level of safety and the choice of the When suitable conditions are available, such dams can be
design and evaluation procedures. In India, the entire constructed up to great heights. The ratio of base width to
country is divided into 4 seismic zones, depending upon height of high gravity dams is generally less than 1:1.
the severity of the earthquake intensity. Thus, the main
aim of this study is to design high concrete gravity dams A typical cross-section of a high concrete gravity dam is
based by multiple step method in seismic zone II of India, shown in Figure 1. The upstream face may be kept
for varying horizontal earthquake intensities from 0.10 g throughout vertical or partly slanting for some of its
- 0.15 g with 0.01g increment to take into account the length. A drainage gallery is generally provided in order
uncertainty and severity of earthquake intensities. The to relieve the uplift pressure exerted by the seeping water.
vertical, principal and shear stresses are also obtained. Purposes applicable to dam construction may include
The results show that the practical profile of gravity dam navigation, flood damage reduction, hydroelectric power
is safe up to earthquake intensity up to 0.14g. Hence by generation, fish and wildlife enhancement, water quality,
provision of drainage cutoff to reduce uplift pressure water supply, and recreation.
cutoff is found necessary to make the dam safe for
earthquake intensity greater than 0.14 g without
changing other loads and or dimension of the dam and
keeping provision for drainage gallery to reduce the
uplift pressure significantly. The practical profile
designed is also analyzed and the results are checked
using CADAM software. The study concludes with shape
optimization of the practical profile of gravity by linear
programming using the software LINGO.
Key words- Concrete Gravity Dam; Dam Failure;
Design; Earthquake Intensity, Stability and Stress

1. Introduction

Basically, a gravity concrete dam is defined as a

structure, which is designed in such a way that its own
weight resists the external forces. It is primarily the
weight of a gravity dam which prevents it from being
overturned when subjected to the thrust of impounded Figure 1. Typical section of a high concrete gravity dam
water. This type of structure is durable, and requires very
little maintenance. Gravity dams typically consist of a 2. Loads
non-overflow section(s) and an overflow section or
spillway. The two general concrete construction methods
for concrete gravity dams are conventional placed mass In the design of gravity concrete, it is essential to deter-
concrete and RCC. mine the loads required in the stability and stress analy -
ses. The forces which may affect the design are: 1) Dead
However, concrete gravity dams are preferred these days load or stabilizing force; 2) Headwater and tailwater
and mostly constructed. They can be constructed with pressures; 3) Uplift; 4) Temperature; 5) Earth and silt
ease on any dam site, where there exists a natural pressures; 6) Ice pressure; 7) Earthquake forces; 8) Wind
foundation strong enough to bear the enormous weight of pressure; 9) Wave pressure, and 10) Reaction of
foundation.
Paper ID: NCCECT 21
 National Conference on “Make in India-An Opportunity for Emerging Engineering Technologies”,
5th to 6th February 2016, S.G.Balekundri Institute of Technology, Belagavi.
3. Profile of a Dam from Practical
Considerations
The elementary profile of a gravity dam (i.e., triangle
with maximum water surface at apex) is only a theore-
tical profile. Certain changes will have to be made in this
profile in order to cater to the practical needs. These
needs are: 1) providing a straight top width for a road
construction over the top of the dam, and 2) providing a
free-board above the top water surface so that water may
not spill over the top of the dam due to wave action, etc.
1) Top Width: The top width (T) of the high dam
should be sufficient to provide carriage-way and to
withstand earthquake shocks and wave actions, and
this may be selected like large earthen dam as
The most economical top width without considering
earthquake forces varies between 6 and 10 m and is
generally taken approximately equal to .
2) Freeboard: Nowadays a freeboard equal to 4% - 5% of
the dam height is provided. The section of gravity dam
should be chosen in such a way that it is the most
economic section and satisfies all the conditions and
requirements of stability. Hence, after the section of the
dam has been arrived at, the stability analysis for the dam
must be carried out.
4. Design Criteria
The design and evaluation of hydraulic structures for
earthquake loading must be based on appropriate criteria
that reflect both the desired level of safety and the choice
of the design and evaluation procedures. The first
requirement is to establish design earthquake ground
motions to be used as the seismic input by giving due
consideration to the consequences of failure and the
designated operational function. Then the response of the
structure to this seismic input must be calculated taking
into account the significant interactions with the rock,
soil, or pile foundation as well as with the impounded, or
surrounding and contained water. The analysis should be
formulated using a realistic idealization of the structure-
water-foundation system, and the results are evaluated in
view of the limitations, assumptions, and uncertainties
associated with the seismic input and the method of analysis.
The design of a gravity dam should be checked for two
cases, i.e., 1) Reservoir Full Case, and 2) Reservoir
Empty Case. When the reservoir is full, the major forces
acting are: weight of the dam, external water pressure,
uplift pressure, and earthquake forces in serious seismic
zones. The minor forces are: silt pressure, ice pressure in
cold countries and wave pressure. For the most
conservative design and from purely theoretical point of
view, a situation may arise when all the forces may act
together. For reservoir empty case, empty reservoir with a
horizontal earthquake force produced towards the u/s has
to be checked for non-development of tension at toe. In
this study, water pressure due to maximum pool level,
Paper ID: NCCECT 21
extreme uplift pressure without any reduction due to
drainage, tail water pressure up to a certain height, and
earthquake forces, will be considered in the design of
gravity dam.
5. Modes of Failures and Structural Stability
of Gravity Dams
A gravity dam may fail due to 1) overturning/rotation
about the toe; 2) crushing; 3) development of tension,
causing ultimate failure by crushing; and 4) shear fail-
ure called sliding.
1) Overturning/Rotation about the Toe: If the resultant of
all the forces acting on a dam at any of its sections passes
outside the toe, the dam shall rotate and overturn about the
toe. The factor of safety against overturning (F.S.O.)
generally varies from 1.5 to 2.
2) Compression or Crushing: A dam may fail by the
failure of its materials, i.e., the compressive stresses
produced may exceed the allowable stresses, and the dam
material may get crushed.
3) Tension: Masonry and concrete gravity dams are
usually designed in such a way that no tension is
developed anywhere, because these materials cannot
withstand sustained tensile stresses. For achieving
economy in designs of very high gravity dams, certain
amount of tension may be permitted under severest
loading condition. The maximum permissible tensile
stress for high concrete gravity dams, under worst
loadings, may be taken as 500 kN/m2 .
4) Sliding: Stability against sliding and shearing through
a certain section through the dam across the foundation or
along cracks in the foundation is of utmost importance.
That is why it needs to be examined with special atten -
tion. Sliding or shear failure will occur when the net
horizontal force above any plane in the dam or at the base
of the dam exceeds the frictional resistance devel- oped at
that level. The factor of safety against sliding (F.S.S.) is
given by
where, µ∑ is the shear resistance in which ∑ is the
total vertical forces; µ is the coefficient of friction
between the dam base and foundation, which varies from
0.65 - 0.75; and ∑ is the total external horizontal
forces.
In low dams, the safety against sliding should be checked
only for friction, but in high gravity dams, for economic
precise designs, the shear strength of the joint, which is
an additional shear resistance, must also be considered. If
this shear resistance of the joint is considered, then the
equation for factor of safety against sliding which is
measured by shear friction factor (S.F.F.) becomes
 National Conference on “Make in India-An Opportunity for Emerging Engineering Technologies”,
5th to 6th February 2016, S.G.Balekundri Institute of Technology, Belagavi.

where, q is the average shear strength of the joint which Below Zone III, the upstream face of the dam is also
varies from about 1400 kN/m2 for poor rocks to about made inclined in order to conform to middle third rule for
4000 kN/m2 for good rocks. reservoir empty condition. For some distance below the
Zone III, the inclinations of the upstream and the
6. Stability Analysis downstream faces of the dam are so adjusted that the
resultant for the reservoir full and empty conditions
The stability of a gravity dam can be approximately and intersects each plane just at the extremities of the middle
easily analyzed by two dimensional gravity method, trial third.
load twist method, Finite Element Method (FEM), or by
experimental studies on models. In this study, the
stability of the dam is analyzed by two dimensional
gravity method.
The steps involved in the analysis of gravity dam by
analytical two dimensional gravity method are: 1)
consider unit length of the dam; 2) work out the
magnitude and directions of all the vertical and horizontal
forces acting on the dam and their algebraic sum; 3)
determine the moment arm of all these forces about the
toe; 4) determine the moments of all these about the toe
and find out the algebraic sum of all those moments; 5)
find out the location of the resultant force by determining
its distance from the toe; 6) find out the eccentricity of
the resultant, which must be less than B/6 in order to
ensure that no tension is developed anywhere in the dam;
7) determine the vertical stresses at the toe and heel; 8)
determine the maximum normal stresses at the toe and
heel; and 9) determine the factor of safety against Table 1.0 Detailed calculations for reservoir full
overturning, sliding and crushing. condition

7. Results and Discussion

The section of gravity dam should be chosen in such a
way that it is the most economic section and satisfies all
the conditions and requirements of stability.

7.1 Multiple step method of design

In multiple step method of design, entire dam is divided
into number of zones and each zone is subjected to the
forces acting on the dam. Zone I is decided on freeboard
considerations. Zone II is decided such that resultant for
reservoir full just intersects the outer middle third of
base. For reservoir empty condition, the resultant lies
within the inner middle third region.

Zone III starts when the resultant line coincides with the
outer middle third line for the full reservoir condition.
The Zone III ends when the resultant just intersects the
inner middle third point of the base.
For Zone III, the upstream face of the dam is made
inclined in order to conform to middle third rule for
reservoir empty condition. For some distance below Zone
II, the inclinations of the upstream and the downstream
faces of the dam is so adjusted that the resultant for the
reservoir full and empty conditions intersects each plane
just at the extremities of the middle third. For reservoir
full condition, the principal stress at the downstream face
reach the maximu m allowable limit.
Table 2.0 Detailed calculations for reservoir empty
condition
7.2 Practical Profile
Practical profile of gravity dam is designed with the
single slope on upstream and downstream side. The
height for zone 1 is 2.5 m, zone 2 is 5.4 m, zone 3 is
13.5m and zone 4 is 19 m. The upstream slope is fixed to
0.15:1 and the downstream slope is 0.93:1. The base
width of the dam is 40.475 m, fixed as per the slopes.
The stability check is carried out and the practical
designed is as shown in Figure 2.
The practical profile with drainage gallery is subjected to
varying earthquake intensities with earthquake intensity

Paper ID: NCCECT 21

 National Conference on “Make in India-An Opportunity for Emerging Engineering Technologies”,
5th to 6th February 2016, S.G.Balekundri Institute of Technology, Belagavi.
increased by 0.01g. It is found that the practical profile
designed is safe against stability checks up to earthquake
intensity of 0.14g as shown in Table 3.0. In all the cases,
the resultant for reservoir full lies well within the middle
third region. But when the earthquake intensity is
increased to 0.15g, resultant line falls outside the middle
third region. Hence a provision of cutoff is made at the
heel of the dam.
Figure 2. Practical profile
Table 3.0 Calculations for practical profile with
incremental increase
The comparative analysis with the increment in the
earthquake intensity has been made in this study. The
intensity of the earthquake has been raised from 0.1g to
0.15g with 0.01g increment. Up to the increment of
0.14g, the gravity dam is safe. But for the intensity of
0.15g the resultant line falls outside the extreme middle
third lines in both the cases. Hence, the cutoff wall has
Paper ID: NCCECT 21
been given at the upstream side of the dam to make the
dam safe. The stability check is carried out for practical
profile of gravity dam with provision of drainage gallery
and cutoff and is as shown in Table 4.0
Table 4.0 Stability check of practical profile for
0.15g incremental increase in earthquake
intensity
7.3 Results from CADAM Software
The Figure 3.0 gives the details of input data for
geometric property of gravity dam to be given in CADM
software. The geometric data as designed as practical
profile of a gravity dam is given as input. The lift joints
are same as in multiple step method of design. That is,
each lift is taken as each block of zones made in multiple
step method of design. The lift joints are as shown in
Figure 4.0
Figure 3.0 Model parameter in CADAM
The stability check is carried out for sliding and
overturning. It is found that the dam is safe at each lift
joint against sliding and overturning. The uplift pressure,
normal stress and principal stress at each lift joints are
 National Conference on “Make in India-An Opportunity for Emerging Engineering Technologies”,
5th to 6th February 2016, S.G.Balekundri Institute of Technology, Belagavi.

calculated and agree well with the values calculated for

the practical profile.

Figure 5.0 Model diagram for LINGO software

Objective function: Minimize Area of cross -section of

dam
Subject to constraints
Figure 4.0 Dimensions of lift joints 1. Depth of water in reservoir = 37.9m
2. Freeboard = 2.5 m
The stability analysis carried out by CADAM software 3. Tail water depth TWH = 7.5m
shows clearly that the resultant lies well within the 4. Top width TW = 9 m
middle third region of each block of the gravity dam. The 5. Upstream slope z1≤0.2
position of the resultant is as shown in Figure 5.0 6. Upstream slope ≥0.1
7. Downstream slope ≤0.8
8. Downstream slope ≥0.6
9. X1=16 m
10. X2 = 32.5 m
11. Eccentricity for reservoir full ≤ B/6
12. Eccentricity for reservoir empty ≤ B/6
13. FS against overturning ≥ 1.5
14. FS against sliding ≥ 1.0

The results obtained from LINGO software is as given

Table 4.0

Figure 5.0 Stability analysis diagram showing

resultant line

7.4 Results from LINGO Software

The software LINGO is used in the present study to
optimize the shape of the dam. This is done by
minimizing the area of cross -section as the objective
function. Linear program has been developed to optimize
the dam shape. The decision variables and the constraints
formulated to obtain the optimized cross -section of
practical profile of gravity dam are as given below.

Table 4.0 Output from LINGO software

Paper ID: NCCECT 21

 National Conference on “Make in India-An Opportunity for Emerging Engineering Technologies”,
5th to 6th February 2016, S.G.Balekundri Institute of Technology, Belagavi.

The gravity dam designed by multiple method of design
and then later modified to practical profile has an area of
cross-section equal to 821.23 m2 . The optimization
computation is to optimize the area of cross -section
subject to the constraints as given above. As obtained
from the results of optimization, the area of the section is
reduced from 821.23 m2 to 805.97 m2 . The width of the
dam bottom is reduced from 40.475m to 37.85m.
[6] Bureau of Reclamation, “U.S. Department of the Interior
Design of Small Dams,” 1977.
[7] S. K. Garg, “Irrigation Engineering and Hydraulic
Structures,” 16th Edition, Khanna Publishers, Delhi, 2002, pp.
960-1020.
[8] C. N. Zangar, “Hydrodynamic Pressures on Dams Due to
Horizontal Earthquake Effects,” Engineering M onograph, No.
11, Bureau of Reclamation, 1952.

8.0 Conclusion [9] C. V. Davis, “Handbook of Applied Hydraulics,” M cGraw-

Hill, Basingstoke, 1969.
From the present study, the following conclusions are
made [10] G. Oberti, “The Interconnection between Concrete Dam
1. The resultant from zone I to Zone IV lies within the and Foundations,” ICOLD, XVII Congress, Q. 66, R. 42,
Vienna, 1991.
middle third and it is also compared with the CADAM
software.
[11] L. R. Volpe, S. C. Ahlgren and E. R. Goodman, “Selection
2. Resultant forces at each lifts have been calculated of Engineering Properties for Geologically Variable
manually and compared using software which shows Foundations,” ICOLD, XVII Congress, Q. 66, R. 59, Vi-enna,
minimum variations. 1991.
3. Practical profile of gravity dam is designed with the
single slope on upstream and downstream side. The [12] G. Winter, L. C. Urquhart, C. E. O’Rourke and A. H. Nil-
upstream slope is 0.15:1 and the downstream slope is son, “Design of Concrete Structures,” 7th Edition, M c- Graw
0.93:1. Hill Inc., Boston, 1964, p. 660.
4. When practical profile is subjected to varying
earthquake intensities from 0.1g to 0.14g with 0.01g
increment, it is found that the dam is safe is against all
stability a check.
5. If the earthquake intensity is increased to 0.14g and
0.15g, the resultant falls outside the outer middle third
point. Hence the provision of cutoff is recommended to
bring the resultant well within the middle third portion of
base of the dam.
6. The area of the section is reduced from 821.23 m2 to
805.97 m2 by optimization procedure. Also the width of
the dam bottom is reduced from 40.475m to 37.85m.
Under such load combinations, the factor of safety and
the stress on the dam toe and heel meet the stability
requirements.

REFERENCES

[1] M . F. Kennard, C. C. Owens and R. A. Reader, “An

Engineering Guide to the Safety of Concrete and M asonry
Dams in the UK,” Report 148, CIRIA, 1995.

[2] N. Smith, “A History of Dams,” Peter Davies, London,

1971.

[3] A. Vogel, “The Historical Development of the Gravity

Dam,” In: H. Fahlbusch, Ed., Historical Dams, International
Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, New Delhi, 2001, pp.
61-70.

[4] A. K. Biswas and S. Chatterju, “Dam Disasters: An

Assessment,” J. Eng. Inst. Can., Vol. 54, No. 3, 1971.

[5] G. B. Baecher, M . E. Gregory and R. de Neufville, “Risk of

Dam Failure in Benefit-Cost Analysis,” Water Resources
Research, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1980, pp. 449-456.

Paper ID: NCCECT 21

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