Numerical Simulation of Hydraulic Fracturing in Earth and Rockfill Dam Using Extended Finite Element Method

Hydraulic fracturing is one of the most important factors affecting the safety of earth and rockfill dam. In this paper, the extended finite element method (XFEM) is used to simulate the hydraulic fracturing behavior in an actual high earth and rockfill dam. The possibility of hydraulic fracturing o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in civil engineering 2018-01, Vol.2018 (2018), p.1-8
Main Authors: Zhu, Jungao, Chen, Shengshui, Fu, Zhongzhi, Ji, En-yue, Geng, Zhizhou
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civil engineering
Computer simulation
Crack propagation
Dams
Earth
Elevation
Engineering
Finite element analysis
Finite element method
Hydraulic fracturing
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Methods
Numerical analysis
Propagation
Researchers
Rockfill dams
Simulation
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Summary:Hydraulic fracturing is one of the most important factors affecting the safety of earth and rockfill dam. In this paper, the extended finite element method (XFEM) is used to simulate the hydraulic fracturing behavior in an actual high earth and rockfill dam. The possibility of hydraulic fracturing occurrence is analyzed, and the critical crack length is obtained when hydraulic fracturing occurs. Then, the crack propagation path and length is obtained by inserting initial crack of different lengths at different elevation. The results indicate that hydraulic fracturing will not occur without the permeable weak surface (initial crack). The critical initial crack length required for hydraulic fracturing is 5.3 m of the calculation model in this paper. The propagation length decreases with the increase of elevation, and the average propagation length decreases from 9.4 m to 3.4 m. Furthermore, it is proved that the direction of crack propagation has a certain angle with the horizontal plane toward the downstream. Considering the up-narrow and down-wide type of the core wall, the possibility of hydraulic fracturing to penetrate the core is extremely high when the upper part of the core wall reaches the critical crack length.
ISSN:1687-8086
1687-8094
DOI:10.1155/2018/1782686