# A systems approach to ice loads on concrete dams

Time: Wed 2022-02-09 13.00

Language: English

Subject area: Civil and Architectural Engineering, Concrete Structures

Doctoral student: Rikard Hellgren , Betongbyggnad

Opponent: Professor Pierre Legér, Polytechnique Montréal

To increase the knowledge about ice loads and the structural behaviour of concrete dams, this thesis applies an approach where the ice and the dam are parts of a structural system. The thesis contains six studies investigating the dam's, the ice's or the system's response to external loads.  Studies of the dam are aimed at increasing the understanding of the normal behaviour of concrete dams. Studies of ice loads include measurements, and a major contribution from this project is the development of a 1$\times$3 m$^2$ ice load panel, the installation of the panel on a concrete dam, and subsequent measurements during six winters. In addition, a systematic review and meta-analysis of previous measurements have been performed. The studies of the different parts have been connected through two studies of the entire system. The first is a parameter study where the static interaction between ice and dam is simulated to quantify how geometric variations of the reservoir and ice affect the mechanical ice loads. The second study searches for detectable influence from the ice load in the measured behaviour of concrete dams.