Computer Simulation of Sequential Impoundment Process of Concrete-faced Rockfill Dam

A procedure is presented for simulating the sequential impoundment process of concrete-faced rockfill dam using nonlinear finite element method. The parameters of constitutive relationship of stress and strain are determined by tri-dimensional compression test in laboratory. The model applied in this study adopts the technique of element birth and death to simulate the sequential impoundment process of concrete-faced rockfill dam with time. Duncan and Chang's model is adopted herein to define the non-linear stress-strain behaviour of the rockfill materials and is used to simulate the prototype behavior of various components of the dam in sequential nonlinear analysis and some representative results are presented.