Transient Thermal Analysis of the Hollow Gravity Dam of the ITAIPÚ Hydroelectric Power Plant

Resumo

Large critical structures, such as dams perform a lot of functions as water supply and power generation.
Since this kind of structures must be constantly studied to guarantee safety behavior during their useful life and
after that. Thus, Numerical computational tools are used in this type of structure to reevaluate limit values of
several parameters related to thermal and structural performance. Therefore, in this work, was used the computer

simulation program Ansys, based on the Finite Element Method (FEA) to perform a thermical analysis of the F-
5/6 block of hollow gravity dam from the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant. In order to know the temperature

distribution resulting from the thermal variation. A thermal-transient analysis was performed during the first four
years when the reservoir was filled in 1982. To perform this analysis, the data from the external thermometers
were interpolated and used as initial conditions. Subsequently, at the location of the internal thermometers, test
points were implemented in the model in order to compare the temperatures obtained in the numerical simulation
with the data recorded by the thermometers. The results was satisfactory.