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Development and evaluation of a practical nonlinear elastic constitutive model for rockfill dam deformation simulation based on monitoring results

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Abstract

To appropriately connect good simulation of rockfill material stress–strain behavior at element level with good simulation of dam deformation, a practical nonlinear elastic EBD constitutive model is developed by introducing dilatancy into the traditional Duncan–Chang EB model. Based on the dam deformation monitoring data of the 164.8 m high Aertashi concrete face rockfill dam and particle swarm optimization, five inversion cases are designed to obtain the optimal EB and EBD model parameters that achieve the best fit with monitoring data. The traditional EB model is shown to have difficulties in achieving good simulation for both settlement and horizontal displacement of rockfill dams, especially in terms of their distribution, whereas the EBD model can simulate both settlement and horizontal displacement well. More importantly, the EB model parameters that allow for acceptable simulation of dam deformation result in poor simulation of element level stress–strain behavior of the gravelly sand, rockfill, and overburden materials. In contrast, the EBD model can achieve good simulation of dam deformation and element level stress–strain behavior simultaneously, paving the way for accurate dam deformation prediction based on model parameters calibrated via triaxial tests.

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The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52022046 and No. 52038005) and the State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Hydraulic Engineering (No. 2021-KY-04) for funding this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hydraulic Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Ke Wang, Rui Wang & Jian-Min Zhang

  2. General Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Planning and Design, Beijing, 100120, China

    Hongjie Tang

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  1. Ke Wang
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Correspondence to Rui Wang.

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Wang, K., Tang, H., Wang, R. et al. Development and evaluation of a practical nonlinear elastic constitutive model for rockfill dam deformation simulation based on monitoring results. Acta Geotech. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-023-02098-7

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