Settlement behaviour of a concrete faced rock-fill dam

Abstract

Settlement behaviour of a concrete faced rock-fill dam (CFRD), Kurtun dam, located in the East Black Sea Region, Turkey, is investigated. This is the first instrumented CRDF in the Country. Two dimensional plane strain finite element analyses were carried out to assess the total stresses and displacements in the dam both for construction and reservoir filling stages by using computer program PLAXIS. Predicted stresses and settlements are compared with those observed and overall the results are found to be in good agreement for the construction stage. Due to the relatively steep abutment slopes, cross-valley arching has a significant effect on stresses and displacements in the dam body. For the reservoir filling condition, it is seen that, predicted settlements are larger than the observed values, which indicates that during reservoir filling the rock-fill embankment responds more stiffly than it does during the construction stage. The hardening soil model is used to represent the nonlinear, inelastic and stress dependent behaviour of rock-fill material. The model parameters are selected from the appropriate values in the literature investigating comparable cases.

A new approximation in determination of vertical displacement behavior of a concrete-faced rockfill dam

“…The preferred method to determine the behavior of CRFDs is the finite element (FE) analysis. FE analyses have been used by Khalid et al (1990), Saboya and Byrne (1993), Liu et al (2002) and Ozkuzukiran et al (2006) to analyze the Cethana dam in Australia, Foz do Areya Dam in Brazil, Yutiao dam in China and Kurtun dam in Turkey, respectively.…”

“…The behavior of CFRDs has been investigated by many researchers (Cooke 1984;Clements 1984;Cooke and Sherard 1987;Ozkuzukiran et al 2006;Kim and Kim 2008) and the description of current practice in the design of CFRDs was presented by Cooke 1984. In general, a CFRD is formed by placing rock pieces that are gradually increased in size from the upstream to downstream side direction to provide smooth transition among the dam's body zones while a reinforced concrete membrane remains in contact with water.…”

“…The information gained from the continuous monitoring of CFRDs is then used in a numerical evaluation to increase safety and improve the design of future CRFDs. The numerical analyses of dams were carried out by researches (Clough and Woodward 1967;Ozkuzukiran et al 2006;Yu et al 2007; Kim and Kim 2008;Gikas and Sakellario 2008;Siyahi and Arslan 2008;Arslan and Rosassanchez 2008) to compare measured displacements and stresses with calculated ones.…”

Assessment of possible damaged areas due to landslide-induced waves at a constructed reservoir using empirical approaches: Kurtun (North Turkey) Dam reservoir area

“…Kurtun dam is located in the Eastern Black Sea Region, 27 km northwest of the town of Torul on the Harsit River in Gumushane province. The main purpose of this dam is to provide energy and the facility has an annual output of 198 GWh (State Hydraulic Works, 2010 (Ozkuzukiran et al, 2006). Kurtun dam is 133 m high from the riverbed, and the crest extends 300 m. The dam is constructed on a relatively narrow valley with steeply sloping walls approximately 45 m apart.…”

Predicting crest settlement in concrete face rockfill dams using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system and gene expression programming intelligent methods

“…The dam construction was followed by constructing a timber faced dumped rockfill dam that had been started in 1850 (Fell et al, 2005). Through the progress of engineering concepts and technology, this type of dam construction has become popular during recent years, especially in areas with shortage of impenetrable soil (Ozkuzukiran et al, 2006). In fact, this type of dam has been constructed for almost 150 years around the world.…”