1 Introduction

Describe the following subchapters.

1.1 Background

In Norway, there exists a big number of concrete dams related to hydro power. Due to the
hydrostatical water pressure and uplifting forces, the dams can experience failure. There are
three different failure modes for stability analysis described in literature; sliding failure,
overturning failure and overstressing. These three failure modes are assumed to occur
independently, but in a real case, it will most likely be a combination of these three failure
modes (Fishman, 2009). The fact that these failure modes interact with each other, makes
stability analysis a complex process. Concrete dams can be divided into two groups; massive
structures and light weight structures. The resistance against sliding is more significant for
light weight concrete dams like Ambursen dams and Buttress dams, and this thesis will focus
on such structures.

Today, number of a lot of light weight concrete dams do not fulfill the requirements for the
safety factor against sliding stability given by the NVEs guidelines. Dam owners are facing
big investments to improve the dams so they fulfill the requirements for safety factor. Most of
the dams have been standing for decades without any signs of sliding, so it is questioned if
costly rehabilitations of all the dams is an unnecessary use of resources.

The last decades, a lot of research on sliding stability for concrete dams have been carried out.
As new calculation tools and technology is developing, new shear strength criteria are
developed to consider more of the aspects that contribute to shear strength in concrete dams.
Stable Dams is a program hosted by NORUT, and the program is one of the research projects
currently looking at shear strength in the foundation of concrete dams. The project is running
a large laboratory test program at COMPLAB at LTU during the winter 2017, looking at both
asperities in rock foundation and core samples from a dam site. The knowledge gained
through this project will help engineers and dam owners to get a better understanding of the
shear strength in concrete dams.
1.2 Hypothesis and research question

The hypothesis for this master thesis is that existing shear strength criteria is not considering
all the aspects contributing to shearing, thus, they should be modified to include more of the
aspects contributing to shear strength. However, newly developed shear strength criteria that
can incorporate the geometry of a surface will probably be able to predict the sear strength of
concrete foundations in a more accurate way than the shear strength criteria used today.

Several research questions can be derived from these assumptions:

1. Can existing shear strength criteria that can incorporate geometry of an interface address
the roughness, direction of movement and location of asperities when predicting the shear
strength? + other aspects contributing to shearing
2. Which shear strength criteria that can incorporate the 3D roughness can predict the shear
capacity from testsis the most accurate?
3. Can How these different shear strength criteria can be used to analyze sliding stability of
concrete dams in the future and replace the Mohr-Coulomb criterion?

1.3 Goal and objectives

The goal of this thesis is to analyze shear strength criteria that can incorporate the geometry
on an interface to predict the shear strength and evaluatesee if how these criteria can be used
to predict the shear strength for concrete dams. This is done by comparing predicted shear
strengths with shear strengths obtained by shear tests in laboratory. Another objective is to
discuss the limitations and challenges using these existing shear strength criteria on concrete
dams and discuss how this can be solved in the future.

Objectives:

Review of models that can incorporate geometry of interface and their capacity to
address roughness, direction of movement and location of asperity.
Study the accuracy of different models by applying previous shear tests found in shear
test data base.
Take part inPerform shear tests on drilled cores from Kalhovd sample dam and and
compare it with the predicted the shear strength fromwith different models.
 Case study: on Kalhovd samples. Calculate the factor of safety by using both test
results and predicted shear strength from the studied models most accurate model and
Mohr-Coulomb.
Discussion of results and analysis.

1.4 Limitations

1.5 Method

A literature review on sliding stability on concrete dams and existing shear strength criteria
has been conducted. The literature was found using Google Scholar and Oria, an online
library from NTNU.

Keywords that were used when searching for literature online:

Shear strength Concrete dams Shear strength criterion Sliding stability Rock concrete
interface Shear tests 3D roughness Grasselli

New literature was also found by following the references in the literature.

Models that can incorporate the surface geometry is analyzed and compared. The accuracy of
the different models is were analyzed by applying previous shear tests. Shear tests on core
samples from the dam site at Kalhovd (rock-concrete interface) is was conducted in laboratory
and the test results are were compared with the estimated shear strengths from the analyzed
models. This is followed by analyses and discussion of the results.

1.6 Structure of thesis

Describe in brief what every chapter contains. Max. of page for each chapter.