Ageing Degradation of Concrete Dams Based on Damage Mechanics Concepts

Abstract

A numerical approach is presented in this paper for the analysis of large concrete dams due to ageing degradation, based on damage mechanics concepts. The proposed method can be used to analyse the seismic responses of aged concrete dams by combining techniques such as degradation evaluation methods, damage mechanics, finite element/boundary element methods. The effect of ageing degradation is taken into account by introducing a degradation factor into formulations of damage mechanics.