Investigation of Three Dimensional Non-Linear Behaviour of Ataturk Dam

If considering accumulated huge mass of reservoir water in the upstream side of Atatürk dam which was built as clay core rockfill dam, investigation of stresses and deformations of the dam has great importance. In this thesis study, empty and full reservoir conditions considering nonlinear behaviour of Atatürk dam was examined. Three dimensional dam-foundation finite element model was designed by FLAC3D program which makes solution with finite difference approach. Finite element model of the dam was created according to real dam geometry. Material properties were selected from real material properties of the dam to obtain nonlinear behaviour of dam. In additional, Mohr-Coulomb material model was used at nonlinear analysis for dam-foundation. The movement of base and side surfaces is restricted by selecting the appropriate boundary conditions according to analysis type. In this study, numerical analyses are comprised of two parts. In the first part, there is a numerical analysis of empty reservoir condition of dam. In this case, firstly, foundation was solved under its self-weight. Then, the dam body was added on the foundation which was already settled in static solution. In the second part of the study, reservoir water effects on the upstream side of the dam were considered after the first part of the numerical analysis. The stresses and vertical displacements in both parts of the dam were examined. In addition to this, stresses and deformations were compared for empty and full reservoir conditions of dam.