Two Approaches for FE Assessment of ASR-Affected Dams

Modeling damage generated by distress mechanisms like alkali-silica reaction (ASR) in plain and reinforced concrete structures is very complex, yet necessary to correctly assess the current (diagnosis) and future structural response (prognosis) of affected concrete members. In this context, the macroscopic ASR model developed by Gorga et al. (2018, 2020) was implemented. The macro-scale modeling approach accounts for the most important parameters affecting ASR through an engineering approach, without the need for non-technical guesses or to “fit” model parameters. The proposed approach has already been used to assess an ASR-affected dam and will be further validated by simulating a structure with more detailed monitoring data, the Bemposta dam in Portugal. The dam structure is described in detail, results of previous analyses performed by LNEC are described, modeling approaches are compared, and a description of the work currently being developed is presented.