The concrete structures at Swedish hydro power facilities were built during the early to mid-20th century and many of them are starting to exhibit age related wear and deterioration. It isimportant to ensure the integrity of these concrete structures from a dam safety perspectiveand also to secure a safe operation of the power facility in the future. With the latter in mind,this paper aims to study the concrete structures that house the power generating machinery ofthe facility, especially the parts close to the generator where the loads from the power unit aresupported. Cracks observed in these structures will reduce its stiffness, which affects theoperation of the rotating machinery. This paper presents and discusses some generalconsiderations and loads that are of importance for this type of structures and highlights sometypical cracks that have been observed in Swedish hydro power facilities. To complement thisdiscussion, a case study is presented of a hydro power facility where cracks have been foundin the concrete support structure of the power unit, especially at the interconnections betweenthe unit and the concrete. The most likely cause of these cracks are investigated through nonlinearfinite element analysis considering mechanical loads as well as physical loads such asdrying shrinkage and temperature variations. It is concluded that the long-term physicalloading is the most probable cause of the observed cracks. However, the operation of thepower unit and changes in its operational pattern can cause further propagation of thesecracks. Finally, suggestions on possible enhancement of the analysis methods used in the casestudy are proposed and discussed for further studies of this type of concrete structures.

It is necessary to consider coupled analysis methods for a simulation to accurately predict the long-term deformations of concrete structures. Among other physical fields that can be considered, both temperature and moisture have a significant influence on the deformations. Variations of these fields must therefore be included implicitly in an analysis. This paper presents a coupled hygro-thermo-mechanical model for hardened concrete based on the framework of the Microprestress-Solidification theory. The model accounts for important features of concrete such as ageing, creep, shrinkage, thermal dilation and cracking; all of these under variable temperatures and moisture conditions. It is discussed how to implement the proposed model in a flexible numerical framework that is especially suitable for multi-physics analyses. The capabilities of the model are shown through the analysis of three experimental data sets from the literature, with focus on creep and shrinkage. Overall, the agreement between the analysis and experimental results is good. Finally, a numerical example of a concrete gravity dam with dimensions and loads typical to northern Sweden is analysed to show the capabilities of the model on a structural scale.

Understanding the early-age behaviour of concrete is of importance for designing durable concrete structures. To contribute to the improvement of this, a hygro-thermo-chemo-mechanical model is presented that accounts for phenomena such as hydration, external and internal drying, self-heating, creep, shrinkage and fracture. The model is based on a multiphase porous media framework, using the Thermodynamically Constrained Averaging Theory (TCAT) as starting point to derive the governing equations of the system. This allows for a systematic treatment of the multiscale properties of concrete and how these develop during hydration, e.g. chemical and physical fixation of water. The proposed mathematical model is implemented within the context of the Finite Element Method (FEM), where all physical fields are solved in a fully-coupled manner. Chosen properties of the model are demonstrated and validated using three experimental results from the literature. Generally, the simulated results are in good agreement with the measurements.

The durability of concrete structures is in no small degree determined by the quality and integrity of the concrete, where structural damages such as cracks negatively affect many of the functions of the structure. Often cracks are formed due to restrained thermal and hygral deformations, where the risk is exceptionally high during the early stages after casting. This study presents a hygro-thermo-chemo-mechanical model that accounts for phenomena such as hydration, external and internal drying, self-heating, creep, shrinkage and fracture. The model is derived as a modified version of a fully-coupled multiphase model recently proposed by Gasch et al. (2019) and implemented in the Finite Element Method. Here the governing equations are simplified, and a more efficient solution method is proposed. These modifications are made with the intention to obtain a model more suitable for structural scale simulations. To validate the model, one of the end-restrained beams tested within the French research project CEOS.fr is analyzed. Laboratory data on the concrete is used to calibrate to model and recordings of ambient conditions makes it possible to define accurate boundary conditions. Results from the simulation are compared to measured temperatures and deformations from the first 60 days after casting and are found to generally be in good agreement. Compared to the fully-coupled model by Gasch et al. (2019), the modifications proposed in this study reduce the computational cost by a factor five; without any noticeable differences to the structural results.

Many concrete structures located in cold climates and in contact with free water are cast with air-entrained concrete. The presence of air pores significantly affects the absorption of water into the concrete, and it may take decades before these are fully saturated. This generally improves the long-term performance of such structures and in particular their frost resistance. To study the long-term moisture conditions in air-entrained concrete, a hygro-thermo-mechanical multiphase model is presented, where the rate of filling of air pores with water is described as a separate diffusion process. The driving potential is the concentration of dissolved air, obtained using an averaging procedure with the air pore size distribution as the weighting function. The model is derived using the thermodynamically constrained averaging theory as a starting point. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the capabilities and performance of the proposed model. These show that the model is capable of describing the complete absorption process of water in air-entrained concrete and yields results that comply with laboratory and in situ measurements.