STRUCTURAL MONITORING OF FOZ DO CHAPECÓ POWER PLANT

Resumo

Hydroelectric power plants represent the most important source of electricity in Brazil.
Hydroelectric plants are a clean source of energy that produce no residua or pollution during its
operational lifetime. However, the storage of great amounts of water may represent a risk to cities
downstream. Although the chances of accidents are small, their impact may be catastrophic. Therefore,
monitoring the structures is paramount to have a safe operation. This work focuses on monitoring the
structural safety of Foz do Chapecó Power Plant. The plant is installed on Uruguai River in the border
of states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The structure consists of a rock fill dam with
asphaltic core and concrete spillways. The spillway structure is 350 meters long and 60 meters high with
15 gates. At the current stage of the research, the numerical simulation of the spillway is developed. The
structure is modelled with the Finite Element Method in 3D, with the entire structure in the same mesh.
Emphasis is given to mesh generation, where details such as galleries, contact with rock foundation and
expansion joints are modelled. Loads are given in terms of reservoir upstream level, openings of gates
and foundation sub-pressures caused by water percolation. The solver is developed using the finite
element program PZ, which provides a whole family of elements morphology, different approximation
spaces and mesh adaption technologies. The displacements obtained by the simulations are compared
to the displacement history of the spillway measured by various sensors. This comparison is used to
adjust simulation data such as the assumed material parameters. In next steps of this work, the numerical
simulation will be integrated to physical monitoring of robotic total stations and other sensors yet to be
installed in the structure.