IWHR completed the project on Research on Durability of Dam Concrete under Harsh Environmental and Operational Conditions and Counter-Measures, a public welfare project of the Ministry of Water Resources. The project, through statistical analyses of test data and observed data and numerical analyses of structures and materials, shed light on the property change pattern of dam concrete in the service period, and establishes an analytical model on major mechanical properties’ decay in typical harsh environment conditions (freeze and thawing, alkali aggregate reaction, corrosion).

The project also explains the change pattern of microfracture structures within the concrete during freeze-thawing and AAR processes, and suggests that the microfracture structural parameters be used to diagnose and evaluate the damage and aging of dam concrete.

The project results have been adopted by Technical Manual of Durability of Hydraulic Concrete DL/T5241-2010. The trouble-shooting method using microfracture quantitative analyses for concrete damage evaluation, and research on mechanical properties’ decay pattern have been successfully applied to several domestic projects.