Predictive numerical modeling of the behavior of rockfill dams

Abstract

Choosing an appropriate soil constitutive model is one of the most important elements of a successful finite element or finite difference analysis of soil behavior. There are several soil constitutive models; however, none of them can reproduce all aspects of real soil behavior. In this research, various constitutive soil models have been studied through triaxial and oedometer tests. Two finite element software applications, namely, Plaxis and Zsoil, were used for numerical analysis. Subsequently, the numerical simulation values were compared with experimental test results to determine which of these constitutive soil models obtained the closest results to the experimental data. The main focus of the study is the comparison between the measured data from monitoring instruments and the numerical analysis results of the Dam-X. Dam-X is an asphaltic core rockfill dam constructed on a River in the North Shore region of Québec. The rockfill dam behavior was analyzed numerically using finite element programs for different stages of construction and after impoundment. The measured data from monitoring and numerical analysis results represent the appropriate response of the Dam-X. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of numerical solutions by considering various constitutive soil models, namely, the Duncan–Chang, MC, and HS models. Comparisons were conducted to determine which of these constitutive soil models obtained the closest results to the measurements.

Date	13 Feb 2017
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Azzeddine Soulaïmani (Supervisor) & Daniel Verret (Co-supervisor)