Análise de dano em barragens de concreto através do método dos elementos finitos

Abstract

The mechanics of damage in continuous mediums studies the effects of degradation, in diffuse and progressive way, suffered by solid bodies under requests of mechanical or non-mechanical nature. Therein such effects are taken into account by reducing the strength and stiffness properties of the damaging material. Materials such as concrete and rocks have as their basic reason for their nonlinear behavior, micro defects in their microstructure that favor the concentration of micro tensions. These micro defects constitute what is understood as the initial damage of the material. The purpose of this work is the study of appropriate damage models for the analysis of damage mechanisms in concrete dams. For this, a linear softening isotropic damage model was used and the damage model of Cervera et al. (1996) in the analysis of two sections of concrete dams. The model of Cervera et al. (1996) stood out for presenting good results in the identification of damage as well as better describing the real aspect of the stress versus strain curve of the concrete. To validate the results, the example of a wall beam by Proença et al. (2002) in which the damage results were compatible with that of the Matlab language program.