ZHANG Guo-xin 1, CHEN Pei-pei 1, 2, ZHOU Qiu-jing 1

1. China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
2. Faculty of Water Resources and Hydroelectric Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710048, China

Abstract: There are great differences between real and design temperature load of super-high arch dams during the first impoundment. First, the temperature of dam body will increase gradually after grouting, and the temperature recovery load acts only on the part that the transverse joints have already been grouted, rather than the whole dam. It is different from the consideration of design methods. Second, the measured water temperature is obviously different from the predicted water temperature. For example, the measured water temperature is much higher than the predicted water temperature at the lower part of the dam. Taking Ertan and Xiaowan arch dams as examples, the influence of the difference between the real and de sign temperature load on the dam working performance is studied, and the stress state of Xiaowan arch dam is analyzed under real temperature load. The results show that the dam heel stress tends to be compressive with the dam layered process of temperature recovery considered. The compressive degree of upstream face of the dam will be underestimated using the common methods of water temperature prediction at present. The dam heel stresses achieved considering real temperature load are consistent with the monitoring stresses of Xiaowan arch dam, and the value is close to each other, so the above methods is more ac curate.

Key words: super-high arch dam, real temperature load, temperature recovery, measured water temperature, dam heel stress

Published in: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 45, No. 2, 2014