Crack Analysis of Concrete Arch Dams Using Micro-Planes Damage Based Constitutive Relations

Among the various numerical simulating models of plane concrete, the micro-planes models have an excellent position. These models are not as complicated as microscopic models such as discrete particles models and do not have the shortcomings of macroscopic models based on the stress or strain invariants. The object of this study is the application of author's recently developed micro-planes damage based model of plane concrete through a 3D finite elements code to show it's abilities in crack/damage analysis of actual concrete structures such as concrete double curvature arch dams. The proposed code not only able to predict the crack line, but also determine which combination of loading conditions occurs on damaged micro-planes. Validity of the proposed code is investigated through a few standard benchmark examples.