THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF HARDENED CONVENTIONAL CONCRETE IN DAMS

The purpose of this Bulletin is to provide a unique, comprehensive and update treatise on the physical properties of hardened conventional concrete for dams, refreshing the partial information contained in some out-of-date ICOLD Bulletins, giving an account of new approaches and examining also some important properties not included in the previous Bulletins.
In particular this new document serves to supersede the following out-of-date ICOLD Bulletins: n° 15 (Frost resistance of concrete - 1960), n° 25 (Extensibility of concrete for large dams - 1976) and n° 26 (Methods of determining effects on shrinkage, creep and temperature on concrete for large dams - 1976).
The main body of this Bulletin addresses the physical fundamental properties of the mass concrete material used most frequently in design and analyses of concrete dams and appurtenant structures. These include strength, elastic properties, creep, drying shrinkage and thermal properties, water permeability, and durability. It is understood that mass concrete material represents the intact concrete inside the mass of the dam and not the more general mass concrete dam that include also structural components and imperfections . In fact, mass concrete material can be thought of as “defect-free” whereas mass concrete structures, such as dams, often have manmade structural components and imperfections as for example construction and contraction joints, interfaces with other materials (e.g. waterstops, injected sealing materials), drains or have cavities like cracks or honey combs.
Chapters 2 through 8 focus on issues of the “mass concrete material”. Some information on the physical properties of “manmade discontinuities” and cracked concrete is presented in the Appendices A, B and C. Furthermore the Appendices address newer and more advanced concepts including the application of fracture mechanics to concrete dams, the properties of construction joints and some physical properties of expanding concrete, in particular concrete in dams subjected to alkali-aggregate reactions.
This Bulletin does not specifically address the properties of Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) dams which are partially dealt in the Bulletin n° 75 – Roller Compacted Concrete for Gravity Dams and in the recent Bulletin n° 126 (Roller-Compacted Concrete Dams – State of the art and case histories).
The properties of fresh concrete are not considered. Chemical reactions and cracking resistance are also intentionally excluded since they are already extensively treated in other recent ICOLD Bulletins (n° 71 - Exposure of dam concrete to special aggressive waters; n° 79 - Alkali-Aggregate Reaction in concrete dams; n° 93 - Ageing of dams and appurtenant works; Bulletin n° 107 - Control and treatment of cracks in concrete dams). The concrete erosion resistance is extensively dealt with in the ACI Report 210 R-93 “Erosion of concrete in hydraulic structures”.

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