Swelling Concrete in Dams and Hydraulic Structures

The swelling of concrete is a major concern for the owners and operators of dams and hydraulic structures. Faced with irreversible movement of their dams or with observations of cracking processes, operators need to explain the phenomena observed in order to justify safety conditions and in some cases to plan remedial works.

Over the last 20 years, active research has been carried out in the field, resulting in practical results in phenomena interpretation and dam modeling. At the same time, an increasing number of affected dams have undergone safety re-evaluations and in some cases remedial work. Several of them have been removed altogether. Although it remains difficult to establish a “state of the art” in this domain due to the rapidly changing context, regular international exchanges in the field appear fruitful and necessary.

Following on from previous conferences in the field organized by Robin Charlwood, former President of the ICOLD Concrete Committee, the initiative was taken by EDF and Toulouse University-LMDC to organize a workshop to provide a new opportunity for sharing experience. The aim of this workshop is to assemble active researchers, leading engineers, and experts from the practicing community and administration interested directly or indirectly in concrete swelling effects in dams and hydraulic structures. All types of chemical expansion phenomena, including those due to alkali aggregate reactions and those due to ettringite formation, are addressed.

These proceedings include 24 papers written by experts renowned in their field, illustrating the need to progress with interdisciplinary approaches.