Thermal Diffusion over a Portland Cement Concrete Gravity Dam

Resumo

Temperature and its oscillations can influence some physical phenomena progress in concrete structures
as the alkali-aggregate reaction swelling effect, the Creep volume variations, and the Shrinkage, and, consequently,
affect its mechanical performance. The temperature distribution analysis drops over the Thermal Diffusion Theory
that culminates in the Heat Diffusion Differential Equation. It is already known, at present, that the Finite
Difference Technique represents as modest formulation, however it may be used to support the computational
tools applied to the numerical analysis expeditiously, suitable to the endorsement of studies and designs. Its widely
known in the Civil Engineering ambit the hot release due to the cement Portland hydration chemical reaction in
concrete mass structures. The subject of this work is the numerical simulation of the thermal diffusion across
concrete gravity dam focusing, specially, over the temperature fields evolution by time in its continuous solid
mass. Such a subject will be hit from the implementation and application of one-dimensional and two-dimensional
thermal diffusion models using an automatic language translated algorithm through the Finite Difference Approach
on the Heat Diffusion Differential Equation. According the obtained results, the numerical modelling adopted in
this paper simulates, in a suitable way, the dam behavior in face of the thermal diffusion, so that it represents
strategically promising tool to perform similar tasks.