COMPUTER AIDED STABILITY ANALYSIS OF GRAVITY DAMS

This paper presents the main features and organization of CADAM, a computer program that has been developed for the static and seismic stability evaluations of concrete gravity dams. CADAM is based on the gravity method using rigid body equilibrium and beam theory to perform stress analyses, compute crack lengths, and safety factors. Seismic analyses could be done using either the pseudo-static or a simplified response spectrum method. CADAM is primarily designed to provide support for learning the principles of structural stability evaluation of gravity dams. It could also be used for research and development on stability of gravity dams. In adopting several worldwide published dam safety guidelines, a large number of modeling options have been implemented regarding (a) crack initiation and propagation, (b) effects of drainage and cracking under static, seismic, and post-seismic uplift pressure conditions, and (c) safety evaluation formats (deterministic allowable stresses and limit states, probabilistic analyses using Monte Carlo simulations). Structural stability evaluation of a 30m dam is presented to illustrate the use of CADAM that is available free from the web site: http://www.struc.polymtl.ca/cadam/.