Shape Optimization Of Arch Dam Based On FEM Of ANSYS

Shape of arch dam is very important to its safety, cost and construction. Its safety depends on the strength value of concrete and rock. During the design of an arch dam, in the one hand, concrete must be used to the full to reduce tension, and make the stress distribution uniformity, on the other hand, much more attention should be paid to the stability of rock and arch dam abutment. Three essential factors, the stress of arch dam, the stability of arch dam abutment and the cost of it must be considered.Shape optimization of an arch dam is to search the most economical and reasonable configuration by mathematic programming method in the given topography, geology and load condition. Experiences of design of arch dams show that the shape designs and foundation treatment are two critical problems. With the developments of high arch dams construction, designer attach much importance to shape design.Nowadays the method of the stress calculation in configuration of arch dam is mainly Trial-load method and Finite Element Method (FEM). The main content of the article is to optimize the geological parameters of parabola by the finite software ANSYS, and find the most economical and reasonable configuration under the condition that the stress and stability meet the requirements of specification. During the optimization, the geological parameters of arch dam are chose to be design variables, the volume of arch dam is chose to be objective function, and the constraints include geological constrains, stable constrains and stress constrains.Based on calculation module and design optimization module of ANSYS and using the ANSYS parametric Design Language (APDL), this paper uses parameterization module, then applying water load, dead load and temperature load, solution of FEM, export of solution (including all sorts of optimization variables, objective function and restriction conditions), termination of convergence, configuration optimization and calculating can fulfill automatically. Which need no manpower, and intelligential degree is very high.