Thermal Analysis of Roller Compacted Concrete Dams

Concrete is a material with weak against tension strength. Due to the change in the volume caused by the temperature variations, tensile stresses appear that cause cracks in critical situations. For this reason, the issue of thermal stresses and cracks have great importance in design of roller compacted concrete (RCC) dams. In this paper, thermal analysis of RCC dams is considered to show the effect of temperature change which induced the tension stresses in the body. For modeling and transient analysis of case model of RCC dams, Ansys Workbench software based on finite element method has been used. Different conditions of concreting such as beginning in hot and cold seasons and stopping in hot and cold months of year, pre-cooling of materials are considered as effective conditions. Obtained results illustrate the distribution of temperature and induced stresses in dam body.