Stress and Deformation Analysis of Asphalt Concrete

Core Rockfill Dam on Overburden by 3D FEM

Zheng Si

Yaolong Chen

Shouyi Li

Xi'an University of Technology

Xian,Shaanxi, China
sz123hlz@163.com

Xian University of Technology

Xian,Shaanxi, China
C21306@126.com

Xian University of Technology

Xian,Shaanxi, China
lishouyi@126.com

AbstractGiven the advantages of simple structure,construct

economical and low influenced by weather conditions,more and
more engineers are turning their attention to the rockfill dam
with asphalt concrete core. In this paper,the author uses the
nonlinear Duncan-Chang E-B model to simulate the constitutive
law of rockfill body and asphalt concrete core,considers the
contact behaviors between rockfill body and asphalt concrete
core and the wetting deformation of upstream rockfill body,then
analysis the rockfill dam and asphalt concrete core by three
dimension FEM,the result shows: considering the wetting
deformation of upstream rockfill body is closer to the reality,the
stress level of the dam is less than 1.0,vertical stress in asphalt
concrete core on arbitrary elevation is greater than water
pressure on the same elevation,and the static lateral pressure
coefficient are all less than 0.5,so the design of the rockfill dam
with asphalt concrete core is reasonable.
KeyWordsasphalt concrete core; constitutive law; wetting
deformation; contact

I.

II.

A hydro-junction project has a total installed capacity of

246 MW and a total storage capacity of 124.0 million stere.
The altitude of reservoir normal water storage level is 1530m,
and the altitude of dead storage level is 1510m.
Water-retaining structure which is designed in accordance with
the standard of grade I structure is asphalt concrete core
rockfill dam, with the maximum dam height of 170m, dam
crest length of 219.44m and dam crest width of 12m. The
whole dam body is built on overburden with a thickness of
around 30m. The maximum core height is 133m, and the top
thickness is 0.6m. The core is gradually thicken downward,
with the thickness of 1.5m at 1403m elevation. The amplified
foot which is located at the bottom of the core is about 3m
high, and the thickness is 3.0m. The amplified foundation is
built on concrete cushion block, which is 8m wide and 2m
high. The section diagram is given as figure 1.
III.

INTRODUCTION

Asphalt concrete core rockfill dam is a new type dam with

better structure. The primary advantages are as following:
Simple structure, the requirement of aggregate gradation is not
very high, and the construction is economical and reasonable;
Asphalt concrete core has a good structure durability if strict
anti-aging measures are adopted; Compared with clay core
dam, asphalt concrete core rockfill dam has less influence by
climate, the construction speed can be greatly improved
because the core wall can be constructed synchronous with the
dam rockfill material; asphalt concrete core rockfill dam has
strong adaptability to the deformation of the dam and the
foundation,generally, hydraulic fracture does not occur in the
core after storing water; asphalt concrete core rockfill dam has
good seismic performance as asphalt concrete materials have
very strong self-healing capabilities. In view of the above
advantages, great importance has been attached to asphalt
concrete core rockfill dam. Combined with an asphalt concrete
core rockfill dam, the present paper is focused on application
of three-dimensional finite element method to reveal stress and
deformation of asphalt concrete core rockfill dam during its
constructing period and storage period comprehensively. The
results can provide reference for the design of asphalt concrete
core rockfill dam.

ENGINEERING SITUATION

FINITE ELEMENT COMPUTING MODEL AND

CALCULATION PARAMETERS

A.

Material constitutive law

Duncan-Chang non-linear E-B model, whose formula is
simple, physical meaning of parameters is clear, and
determination of parameters is mature and simple, can simulate
the stress deformation characteristics of rockfill evey well.
Therefore, it is widely used in calculating the stress
deformation of rockfill dam[1]. In this paper, Duncan-Chang
hyperbolic E-B model is applied to describe the constitutive
law of the rockfill materials and the asphalt concrete.
Experiment material parameters for E-B model of the
rockfill body and asphalt concrete core are shown in Table 1.
B. The wetting deformation of rockfill body after storing
water
Understanding of the wetting deformation of rockfill body
is a gradually deepening process. At first, people think that
hard rock coarse-grained materials couldnt produce large
wetting deformation after soaking, which can be neglected.
However, the measured data of some rockfill dam in built
shows that after storing water, the uplift of the upstream
rockfill body doesnt appear but sinking occurs after soaking.

Supported by Special Fund for Key Subject Construction Project of Shaanxi Province

978-1-4244-4813-5/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE

1530.80 Check Flood Level

1530.00 Normal Water Level

1527.40 Design Flood Level

1535.00 Crest Elevation

1533.00 Asphalt Concrete Core Elevation

1:1
.8

1510.00 Dead Water Level

berm
Dry Stone , 1m
1 :1

Cushion Material , 0.3m

.9

1:1
.3

Dam Axis

1:1

Dry Stone , 1m
Cushion Material , 0.3m
Rockfill Material of I Region

.8

Rockfill Material
of II Region

1:1
.8

Rockfill Material
of I Region

1415.53

Former Ground Line

3BB 3BB

1:
1.
5

.5
1:1

al

Q4

al

1:1
.5

the dam base excavation outline

Q4

al

.5 Q 4
1:1

Lower limit of weak weathered zone

C3 d
C3 d

Consolidation grouting

C3 d
Anti-seepageCurtain

Figure 1.

Sketch of the maximum section of the asphalt concrete core rockfill dam

TAB.1 EXPERIMENT MATERIAL PARAMETERS FOR E-B MODEL OF THE ROCKFILL BODY AND ASPHALT CONCRETE CORE
Material Types

(kg/m3)

(MPa)

()

()

Rf

Kb

Kur

nur

asphalt concrete

2447

0.30

31.0

0.58

287.6

0.21

1190

0.76

550

0.21

rockfill material of I region

2300

47.8

7.3

0.85

900

0.51

430

0.26

1800

0.51

rockfill material of II region

2330

51.3

9.5

0.84

1000

0.58

580

0.47

2000

0.58

transition layer

2320

54.0

10.5

0.80

900

0.40

700

0.15

1800

0.40

overburden layer

2100

44.0

3.8

0.75

400

0.45

250

0.10

800

0.45

Through analyzing people recognize that coarse-grained

materials would produce wetting deformation which is similar
to collapsible loess. The wetting deformation will cause
stresses redistribution of the dam, which results in the dam
body sinking and cracks, and serious wetting deformation will
lead to the destruction of impervious body, finally influence
safety of the dam. Therefore, the influence of the wetting
deformation on rockfill body must be considered when
analyzing the stress deformation of rockfill dam by FEM.
The wetting deformation model divides wetting
deformation into two groups, that is wetting volumetric
strain vs and wetting shearing strain s
1
vs = Cw
s = Dw Sl /(1 Sl )
2
where Sl is stress level, Cw and Dw are undetermined
parameters.
The wetting deformation model parameters are given in
Table 2.
TAB.2 WETTING DEFORMATION MODEL PARAMETERS
Parameter
Material
upstream rockfill materials
asphalt concrete core
downstream rockfill materials

Cw

Dw

0.0025
0.00
0.00

0.006
1.00
1.00

C. Simulation of contact surface

When building finite element calculation model, the
contact surface will generate dislocation, slip or cracking after
deformation as difference between the deformation of the two
adjacent materials is large. That is, once the shear stress of the
contact surface meets the Mohr-Coulomb criterion, shear stress

and shear displacement wont follow the specified relationship

any longer. So contact elements are usually set up between the
adjacent materials with large difference in properties. In this
paper, contact elements are set up between the core and
transition layer on both sides, between the intersections of the
concrete cushion block and core, and between intersections of
the concrete cushion block of the two banks and the dam body.
Non-thickness Goodman elements are applied to simulate
the contact surfaces. Parameters for contact elements are
shown in table 3.
TAB.3 PARAMETERS FOR GOODMAN ELEMENT
Contact Surface
between the core and
transition layer
between the core and
concrete cushion block
between rockfill
materials and concrete
cushion block

Rf

K1

Kn

()

C
(MPa)

0.82

2600

0.48

5000

30.0

0.023

0.85

6000

0.30

20000

20

0.01

0.86

2800

0.35

5500

10

0.01

D. Finite element calculation model and load classification

The mesh division of calculation model mainly uses
eight-node hexahedron element. As the dam body and
foundation are discreted, a total of 11394 elements and 13541
nodes is got.The asphalt concrete core is divided into two-layer
elements along thickness direction, so as to analyze the state of
tension and compression of the upstream and downstream. The
three-dimensional finite element mesh division of dam is
shown in figure 2(a), and the mesh division of core and
concrete cushion block is shown in figure 2(b) and figure 2(c).
To simulate the dams actual construction and water storage
process, 12-level load is adopted to simulate the construction
of the dam according to its construction schedule, as the dam

increases from the foundation to the topside of the dam in

layers,and 7-level load is used to simulate the process as the
reservoir water level gradually increases.

(a) Dam element model

Figure 2.

(b) Core element

(c) Concrete cushion

3-D finite element model of asphalt concrete core rockfill dam

IV.

CALCULATION RESULTS ANALYSIS

A. Stress and deformation of the dam

Figure 3 shows the contour maps of stress and
displacement with regard to the maximum rockfill dam sketch
when the dam is under the time of completion, contour maps
of stress and displacement under normal storage level are
similar to them. The maximum settlements of the dam body
under the two stages are -724.5mm and -793.7mm, account for
0.424% and 0.465% of the maximum dam height, and both
appear close to the dam axis at half-height of the dam. The
settlement of the dam body slightly increases after water
storage, mainly due to the wetting deformation of rockfill
materials. Under the time of completion, horizontal
displacement of the dam almost presents a symmetric

(a) Vertical displacement contour map under time of completion (Unit:m)

(c) Major principal stress contour map under time of completion (Unit:MPa)
Figure 3.

The major and the minor principal stress of the dam

increase from the top to the bottom. The major principal stress
value of the dam under the time of completion and nomal
water storage period are 2.45MPa and 2.92MPa respectively,
which appear at the middle of the dam bottom. There is no
more than 0.1MPa tension stress in the minor principal stress,
which appears on the upstream and downstream slope nearby.
Stress level Sl is an important index to distinguish the limit
equilibrium zone in rockfill dam.
Sl =

(1 3 )
(1 3 ) f

(3)

Figure 4 is the stress level contour map of of the dam

maximum section. Stress level values of every part of the dam
both under the time of completion and normal storage level are
less than 1.0, indicating that the shear failure of the rockfill
dam does not occur.

(b) Horizontal displacement contour map under time of completion

(Unit:m)

(d) Minor principal stress contour map under time of completion (Unit:MPa)

Calculation results of the maximum section of the rockfill dam

(a) Time of completion

Figure 4.

distribution along the dam axis. The horizontal displacements

point to the upstream and downstream are -126.7mm and
130.5mm separately. When water level reaches to the normal
storage level, the whole dam offset to the downstream under
water pressure, the maximum horizontal displacements that
point to the upstream and downstream are -118.4mm and
183.5mm respectively.

(b) Nomal water storage level

Stress level contour map of the maximum section of the rockfill dam

B. Stress and deformation of the asphalt concrete core

Figure 5 shows the contour maps of stress and
displacement with regard to longitudinal section of asphalt
concrete core when the core is under the time of completion,
contour maps of stress and displacement under normal storage
level are similar to them. The maximum settlements of the
asphalt concrete core under the two stages are -679.8mm and

-768.4mm separately, and both appear at the middle of

half-height of the core. Influenced by the shape of the valley,
both the left and the right bank of core have the displacement
towards the central of river bed along the dam axis.
Under the time of completion and normal storage level the
major principal stress of the core are 1.79MPa and 2.20MPa
separately, which appear at the bottom of the cores upstream.

Near the steep left bank and right bank of the core, the minor
principal stress is tensile stress, and maximum is about 0.4Mpa
.

Calculation formula of the static lateral pressure coefficient of

asphalt concrete core wall is

Figure.6 presents the stress distribution of the asphalt

concrete core wall in storage period. The stress of the core
distributing along the elevation in the vertical direction is
smaller than the gravity stress, it concludes that a certain arch
effect exists in the core dam. Vertical stress at arbitrary
elevation in the core is lager than water pressure at the same
elevation, so hydraulic fracturing failure doesnt occur in the
core[2].

(4)

(a) Vertical displacement contour map undertime of completion

(Unit:m)

= 3
1

Static lateral pressure coefficient should be controlled at

(0.3~0.5), so as to prevent excessive volume deformation and
destabilization[2]. According to calculation, the static lateral
pressure coefficient maximum value is about 0.48 under the
time of completion and nomal water storage period, so the
asphalt concrete core wall is stable under the two conditions.

(b) Displacement contour map along dam axis under time of completion

(c) Major principal stress contour map under time of completion (Unit:MPa)
(d) Minor principal stress contour map undertime of completion
Figure 5.
Middle longitudinal section calculation results of the asphalt concrete core
~ ~
~ ~

the vertical stress of the core

after storing water

~ ~
~

the horizontal stress of the core

after storing water
gravity stress distribution
of the core

center line of the core

~ ~
~

Figure 6.

3.0

2.0

water pressure
1.0

[2]

Stress pattern of storage water period of asphalt concrete core

V.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

In this paper, Duncan-Chang non-linear E-B model is used

to analyze the asphalt concrete core rockfill dam,and the
calculation results obtained accord with the similar engineering
experience. This shows that the choised model can simulate
the stress and deformation properties of rockfill body well.
The maximum settlement of rockfill body after storing
water is lager than that of under the time of completion,which
shows that considering wetting deformation of rockfill
materials is more conformed to reality.

(Unit:MPa)

Under the time of completion and nomal water storage

period, stress level value of every part of dam body is less than
1.0; after storing the water, vertical stress at arbitrary elevation
in the core is lager than water pressure at the same elevation,
and static lateral pressure coefficients of asphalt concrete core
are all less than 0.5. It can be seen that the design of this
asphalt concrete core rockfill dam is reasonable.
[1]

~
4.0

(Unit:m)

[3]

[4]

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