University of Texas at Tyler : Civil Engineering Research

Structural Evaluation

Example Project – Lyman Run State Park Dam Evaluation

Description
The project was involved with the evaluation of the Lyman Run State Park Dam. The dam was a newly constructed facility that was severely cracked. As part of the project, the following six tasks were completed:

Task 1: Review project information
Task 2: Provide maps of existing cracks
Task 3: Determine depth of existing cracks
Task 4: Investigate self-healing of cracks and flood labyrinth cell
Task 5: Perform petrographic examination of concrete cores removed from dam
Task 6 Perform analytical study to estimate early age performance

In pursuit of these tasks, four thrusts of effort were performed that are discussed herein: (1) laboratory studies of mock-ups of the dam to ensure success of nondestructive evaluation techniques in the field; (2) field investigations to survey existing cracks, determine crack depths and flood one cell of the labyrinth structure; (3)analytical studies to estimate early age performance and determine likely causes of cracking; and (4) petrographic studies of cores removed from the dam to look for evidence of improper curing, improper mixture proportions, self healing of cracks and ASR.

Plan view of Lyman Run State Park Dam –
mat concrete section showing locations where evaluations were performed as part of the field work.

Construction of a laboratory mock-up used to investigate cracks in the Lyman Run State Park Dam.

Photograph of concrete core extracted from Lyman Run State Park Dam.
(showing rebar sectioned and concrete cracking)