A case study on the deformation behaviour of asphalt concrete core dams (ACRD) with different core inclinations

Asphalt concrete cores in dams as sealing barrier provide a cost-effective and highly flexible solution even for high dams. Within this study an intense numerical analysis is performed to study the stress and deformation behaviour of asphalt concrete core dams with different core inclinations. Therefore three models of an 128 m high rockfill dam with different designs (vertical, inclined and partially inclined core) are introduced in the current paper. Based on numerical analyses the stress and deformation behaviour of the dam and the core are studied in order to demonstrate differences between the core designs. The analyses showed only small deviations of the vertical deformation behaviour of the dam for the core designs examined in this study. The highest horizontal core deformations were obtained with the vertical core. The inclined and partially inclined core showed considerable lower horizontal deformations. With regard to the stress state in the core, the lowest principal stress is obtained with the inclined core.