SLIDING OF CONCRETE DAMS

Co-ordinator: G. Ruggeri (Italy)

e-mail: itcold@iol.it

Terms of Reference

Regulatory Rules, Guidelines or Normal Practice adopted in different Countries for the sliding safety assessment.

Use of site specific data for the sliding safety assessment. Standard conventional approaches may be not suited to the safety re-assessment of existing dams, each existing dam being is a peculiar case, particularly when in operation since long time.

Significant experimental studies relevant to the concrete lift joints and concrete-to-rock contact surface.

Numerical modelling. Well-consolidated traditional approaches establish appropriate safety margins to incorporate the uncertainties embedded in the methods. Depending on the reliability of the available input information, methods to study the structural response from operational conditions to limiting states can allow to release some conservatism embedded in the conventional approaches.

The attention of the Group was concentrated on conventional concrete gravity dams, in static loading conditions.