A combined finite element and deep learning network for structural dynamic response estimation on concrete gravity dam subjected to blast loads

Social infrastructures such as dams are likely to be exposed to high risk of terrorist and military attacks,leading to increasing attentions on their vulnerability and catastrophic consequences under such events.This paper tries to develop advanced deep learning approaches for structural dynamic response prediction and dam health diagnosis.At first,the improved long short-term memory(LSTM)networks are proposed for data-driven structural dynamic response analysis with the data generated by a single degree of freedom(SDOF)and the finite numerical simulation,due to the unavailability of abundant practical structural response data of concrete gravity dam under blast events.Three kinds of LSTM-based models are discussed with the various cases of noise-contaminated signals,and the results prove that LSTM-based models have the potential for quick structural response estimation under blast loads.Furthermore,the damage indicators(i.e.,peak vibration velocity and domain frequency)are extracted from the predicted velocity histories,and their relationship with the dam damage status from the numerical simulation is established.This study provides a deep-learning based structural health monitoring(SHM)framework for quick assessment of dam experienced underwater explosions through blastinduced monitoring data.

Determination of Monitoring Control Value for Concrete Gravity Dam Spatial Deformation Based on POT Model

Deformation can directly reflect the working behavior of the dam,so determining the deformation monitoring control value can effectively monitor the safety of dam operation.The traditional dam deformation monitoring control value only considers the single measuring point.In order to overcome the limitation,this paper presents a new method to determine the monitoring control value for concrete gravity dam based on the deformations of multi-measuring points.A dam’s comprehensive deformation displacement is determined by the measured values at different measuring points on the positive inverted vertical line and the corresponding weight of eachmeasuring point.The projection pursuit method(PPM)combined with the grey wolf optimization(GWO)algorithm is used to determine the weight of each measuring point according to the spatial correlation distribution characteristics of dam deformation.The peaks over threshold(POT)model based on the extreme value theory is adopted to determine the monitoring control value with the obtained dam comprehensive deformation displacement.In addition,the POTmodel is improved with the automatic threshold determinationmethod based on the 3σcriterion in probability theory and the GWO algorithm,which can avoid subjectivity and randomness in determining the threshold.The results of the engineering application show the feasibility and applicability of the proposed method.

The damage to model concrete gravity dams subjected to water explosions

Over the past century,the safety of dams has gradually attracted attention from all parties.Research on the dynamic response and damage evolution of dams under extreme loads is the basis of dam safety issues.In recent decades,scholars have studied the responses of dams under earthquake loads,but there is still much room for improvement in experimental and theoretical research on small probability loads such as explosions.In this paper,a 50-m-high concrete gravity dam is used as a prototype dam,and a water explosion model test of a 2.5-m-high concrete gravity dam is designed.The water pressure and the acceleration response of the dam body in the test are analysed.The pressure characteristics and dynamic response of the dam body are assessed.Taking the dam damage test as an example,a numerical model of concrete gravity dam damage is established,and the damage evolution of the dam body is analysed.By combining experiments and numerical simulations,the damage characteristics of the dam body under the action of different charge water explosions are clarified.The integrity of the dam body is well maintained under the action of a small-quantity water explosion,and the dynamic response of the dam body is mainly caused by the shock wave.Both the shock wave and the bubble pulsation cause the dam body to accelerate,and the peak acceleration of the dam body under the action of the bubble pulsation is only one percent of the peak acceleration of the dam body under the action of the shock wave.When subjected to explosions in large quantities of water,the dam body is seriously damaged.Under the action of a shock wave,the dam body produces a secondary acceleration response,which is generated by an internal interaction after the dam body is damaged.The damage evolution process of the dam body under the action of a large-scale water explosion is analysed,and it is found that the shock wave pressure of the water explosion causes local damage to the dam body facing the explosion.After the peak value of the shock wave,the impulse continues to act on the dam body,causing cumulative damage and damage inside the dam body.

Seismic response of concrete gravity dam reinforced with FRP sheets on dam surface

This paper aims at exploring the effects of anti-seismic reinforcement with the fiber-reinforced polymer （FRP） material bonded to the dam surface in dam engineering. Time-history analysis was performed to simulate the seismic failure process of a gravity dam that was assumed to be reinforced at the locations of slope discontinuity at the downstream surface, part of the upstream face, and the dam heel. A damage model considering the influence of concrete heterogeneity was used to model the nonlinearity of concrete. A bond-slip model was applied to the interface between FRP and concrete, and the reinforcement mechanism was analyzed through the bond stress and the stress in FRP. The results of the crack pattern, displacement, and acceleration of the reinforced dam were compared with those of the original one. It is shown that FRP, as a reinforcement material, postpones the occurrence of cracks and slows the crack propagation, and that cracks emanating from the upstream surface and downstream surface are not connected, meaning that the reinforced dam can retain water-impounding function when subjected to the earthquake. Anti-seismic reinforcement with FRP is therefore beneficial to improving the seismic resistant capability of concrete dams.

Incremental dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dams including base and lift joints

The growth in computer processing power has made it possible to use time-consuming analysis methods such as incremental dynamic analysis（IDA） with higher accuracy in less time.In an IDA study,a series of earthquake records are applied to a structure at successively increasing intensity levels,which causes the structure to shift from the elastic state into the inelastic state and finally into collapse.In this way,the limit-states and capacity of a structure can be determined.In the present research,the IDA of a concrete gravity dam considering a nonlinear concrete behavior,and sliding planes within the dam body and at the dam-foundation interface,is performed.The influence of the friction angle and lift joint slope on the response parameters are investigated and the various limit-states of the dam are recognized.It is observed that by introducing a lift joint,the tensile damage can be avoided for the dam structure.The lift joint sliding is essentially independent of the base joint friction angle and the upper ligament over the inclined lift joint slides into the upstream direction in strong earthquakes.

Methodology for estimating probability of dynamical system's failure for concrete gravity dam

Methodology for the reliability analysis of hydraulic gravity dam is the key technology in current hydropower construction.Reliability analysis for the dynamical dam safety should be divided into two phases:failure mode identification and the calculation of the failure probability.Both of them are studied based on the mathematical statistics and structure reliability theory considering two kinds of uncertainty characters(earthquake variability and material randomness).Firstly,failure mode identification method is established based on the dynamical limit state system and verified through example of Koyna Dam so that the statistical law of progressive failure process in dam body are revealed; Secondly,for the calculation of the failure probability,mathematical model and formula are established according to the characteristics of gravity dam,which include three levels,that is element failure,path failure and system failure.A case study is presented to show the practical application of theoretical method and results of these methods.

Comparative Study on Deformation Prediction Models of Wuqiangxi Concrete Gravity Dam Based on Monitoring Data

The deformation prediction models of Wuqiangxi concrete gravity dam are developed,including two statistical models and a deep learning model.In the statistical models,the reliable monitoring data are firstly determined with Lahitte criterion;then,the stepwise regression and partial least squares regression models for deformation prediction of concrete gravity dam are constructed in terms of the reliable monitoring data,and the factors of water pressure,temperature and time effect are considered in the models;finally,according to the monitoring data from 2006 to 2020 of five typical measuring points including J23(on dam section 24^(#)),J33(on dam section 4^(#)),J35(on dam section 8^(#)),J37(on dam section 12^(#)),and J39(on dam section 15^(#))located on the crest of Wuqiangxi concrete gravity dam,the settlement curves of the measuring points are obtained with the stepwise regression and partial least squares regression models.A deep learning model is developed based on long short-term memory(LSTM)recurrent neural network.In the LSTM model,two LSTMlayers are used,the rectified linear unit function is adopted as the activation function,the input sequence length is 20,and the random search is adopted.The monitoring data for the five typical measuring points from 2006 to 2017 are selected as the training set,and the monitoring data from 2018 to 2020 are taken as the test set.From the results of case study,we can find that(1)the good fitting results can be obtained with the two statistical models;(2)the partial least squares regression algorithm can solve the model with high correlation factors and reasonably explain the factors;(3)the prediction accuracy of the LSTM model increases with increasing the amount of training data.In the deformation prediction of concrete gravity dam,the LSTM model is suggested when there are sufficient training data,while the partial least squares regression method is suggested when the training data are insufficient.

Seismic stability analysis of concrete gravity dams with penetrated cracks

The seismic stability of a cracked dam was examined in this study. Geometric nonlinearity and large deformations, as well as the contact condition at the crack site, were taken into consideration. The location of penetrated cracks was first identified using the concrete plastic-damage model based on the nonlinear finite element method （FEM）. Then, the hard contact algorithm was used to simulate the crack interaction in the normal direction, and the Coloumb friction model was used to simulate the crack interaction in the tangential direction. After verification of numerical models through a case study, the seismic stability of the Koyna Dam with two types of penetrated cracks is discussed in detail with different seismic peak accelerations, and the collapse processes of the cracked dam are also presented. The results show that the stability of the dam with two types of penetrated cracks can be ensured in an earthquake with a magnitude of the original Koyna earthquake, and the cracked dam has a large earthquake-resistant margin. The failure processes of the cracked dam in strong earthquakes can be divided into two stages： the sliding stage and the overturning stage. The sliding stage ends near the peak acceleration, and the top block slides a long distance along the crack before the collapse occurs. The maximum sliding displacement of the top block will decrease with an increasing friction coefficient at the crack site.

Comparison between Response Spectrum and Time History Method of Dynamic Analysis of Concrete Gravity Dam

Dam structure built to store water has failed with resulting loss of life, social, economic and environmental losses due to seismic vibrations. These vibrations are dynamic in nature. These vibrations must be reduced with proper application of engineering principles and for estimating the behavior of concrete gravity dam dynamic analysis plays an extraordinary role. This paper presents the dynamic time history analysis and response spectrum method of a concrete gravity dam by using STAAD-PRO. Here Finite Element Approach is used to analyze the dam. A concrete gravity dam model is prepared in STAAD-PRO to perform the time history analysis and response spectrum analysis and a comparison is done between both these methods. Concrete gravity dam is a large structure which retains a very large amount of water on its upstream side and it is very crucial for a dam to survive against vibrations of earthquake. So it is a matter of study to check the behaviour of a dam during and after the application of the loading.

Bending failure of a concrete gravity dam subjected to underwater explosion

Dam structures are prime targets during wars,and a tragedy is likely to happen in a populated area downstream of a dam exposed to explosions.However,experimental investigations of the failure of a concrete gravity dam subjected to underwater explosion(UNDEX)are extremely scarce.In this study,centrifuge tests and numerical simulations were performed to investigate the failure of a concrete gravity dam subjected to a near-field UNDEX.The results revealed the existence of two tensile fractures inside the dam,one in the upper part and the other in the lower part.Due to the narrowness of the upper part,there were coupled effects of bending tensile loads in the upstream face and a reflected tensile stress wave in the downstream face,resulting in severe tensile damage to the upper part in both the upstream and downstream faces.The fracture in the lower part was measured at around one third of the height of the dam.This fracture was produced mainly by the bending tensile loads in the upstream face.Driven by those loads,this fracture started from the upstream face and developed towards the downstream face,with a horizontal angle of about 15?.The underlying mechanisms behind the two tensile fractures were confirmed by recorded strain histories.The dam failures presented in this study are similar to those produced in historical wars,in which dams were under similar attack scenarios.

Deformation early-warning index for heightened gravity dam during impoundment period

The mechanical parameters of materials in a dam body and dam foundation tend to change when dams are reinforced in aging processes.It is important to use an early-warning index to reflect the safety status of dams,particularly of heightened projects in the impoundment period.Herein,a new method for monitoring the safety status of heightened dams is proposed based on the deformation monitoring data of a dam structure,a statistical model,and finite-element numerical simulation.First,a fast optimization inversion method for estimation of dam mechanical parameters was developed,which used the water pressure component extracted from a statistical model,an improved inversion objective function,and a genetic optimization iterative algorithm.Then,a finite element model of a heightened concrete gravity dam was established,and the deformation behavior of the dam with rising water levels in the impoundment period was simulated.Subsequently,mechanical parameters of aged dam parts were calculated using the fast optimization inversion method with simulated deformation and the water pressure deformation component obtained by the statistical model under the same conditions of water pressure change.Finally,a new earlywarning index of dam deformation was constructed by means of the forward-simulated deformation and other components of the statistical model.The early-warning index is useful for forecasting dam deformation under different water levels,especially high water levels.

Study of damage to a high concrete dam subjected to underwater shock waves

To study the effect of a strong underwater shock wave on a concrete dam, this research aims to improve hammer impact methods in model tests. Six 1:200 scale models were designed and tested under distributed impact loads. A device was deployed for a direct measurement of the impact force at the upstream face of the dams. The model dam bases were anchored to prevent displacement. The experimental results indicate that the top part of the concrete dam is a weak zone, and the impact failure initiates with a fracture on the top of the dam. The peak value of impact stress increases when the second crack appears in the concrete dam from the upstream face to the downstream face. And, the level of the second crack in the dam body is lower as the peak value of impact stress increases. In this study, dynamic analysis was conducted by calculating the results to verify the effectiveness of a device to directly measure the impact force. This method may be used to approximately forecast the damage of concrete dam and may also be useful in other engineering applications.

Effects of spatial variation in cohesion over the concrete-rock interface on dam sliding stability

The limit equilibrium method （LEM） is widely used for sliding stability evaluation of concrete gravitydams. Failure is then commonly assumed to occur along the entire sliding surface simultaneously.However, the brittle behaviour of bonded concrete-rock contacts, in combination with the varying stressover the interface, implies that the failure of bonded dam-foundation interfaces occurs progressively. Inaddition, the spatial variation in cohesion may introduce weak spots where failure can be initiated.Nonetheless, the combined effect of brittle failure and spatial variation in cohesion on the overall shearstrength of the interface has not been studied previously. In this paper, numerical analyses are used toinvestigate the effect of brittle failure in combination with spatial variation in cohesion that is taken intoaccount by random fields with different correlation lengths. The study concludes that a possible existenceof weak spots along the interface has to be considered since it significantly reduces the overallshear strength of the interface, and implications for doing so are discussed.

Current State of High 120 m Concrete Dam Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Plant

The research object was high 120 m concrete gravity dam of the Angara Bratsk hydroelectric power plant. The state of the concrete dam is estimated based on the results of continuous supervision performed by site personnel as well as periodic monitoring. According to the classification of the interrelations in the system ＂concrete-environment＂, there were selected some important parts of dams and a comprehensive analysis of concrete was executed on these parts. Concerning the complex research of concrete, a combination of full-scale tests with core-sampling has been proposed. Core samples tests had an object to study the deep concrete layers and to determine the specific indicators such as strength, density, porosity, comparative diameter of capillary pores, CaO content in cement stone and others. Obtained findings and recommended criteria can be applied when selecting technologies for constructing dams that guarantee their durability in the north.

The numerical simulation of interface crack propagation without re-meshing

Based on the framework of the extended finite element method (XFEM), the enriched exponent discontinuous function is modified properly by introducing the rigidity ratio of two sides materials of interface crack, and the portion integral scheme is adopted for interface elements containing two materials. To embody the singularity of the crack tip, the triangle function is introduced directly. What’s more, the maximum loop stress fracture criterion is adopted to determine the extension direction in extended material domains, and the true extension distance for each load step is determined by reducing or increasing half the current trial extension distance until the equivalent stress intensity factor reaches the type I fracture toughness of material. Finally, with the improved XFEM, the interface crack propagation in a cantilever deep beam and concrete gravity dam are simulated without re-meshing respectively and their failure modes are also analyzed.