Análise numérica para identificação de zonas prováveis de fissuramento aplicada a barragens construídas no Ceará

Abstract

The cracking of massifs is a phenomenon frequently observed in earth dams and can arise from various causes, including the variation in rigidity caused by changes in the wetting of the materials that make up the dam. Some dams in Ceará have this problem, such as the Trussu dam, whose cracking is attributed to variations in wetting caused by the filling of the dam's reservoir. It is in this context that this study sought to present a crack prediction methodology for dams in Ceará, based on variations in stiffness, with the determination of material properties and deformability parameters based on usual values according to their classification. To do this, different scenarios were used for each bus, considering that the more deformable material was more susceptible to variations in wetting. In addition, it was considered that the wetting of the massif was caused by the filling of the reservoir, and that the wetting of the foundation was caused by the rise in the water level. The numerical analysis was carried out using SLIDE 6.0 and UNSTRUCT software (developed by Miranda (1988) and modified by Silva Filho (1998)). Using the association and numerical analysis of the various types of dams evaluated in this work, it was observed that the variations in deformation between the wet and non-wet regions of a busbar can lead to potential cracking zones. In addition, it was found that the operation of a dam's drainage system can induce the formation of cracks due to differences in wetting between the upstream (wet) and downstream (dry) sections of a massif. Therefore, the methodology used in this study proved to be effective in predicting cracking in the dams evaluated due to variations in the stiffness of the materials that make up the structure. In this way, this study can become a replicable tool for dams with structures similar to the one analyzed.