Abstract: Behaviors of the transverse joints of an arch dam are crucial to evaluating its performance in the whole life cycle. A practically important issue is to study and control the joint characteristics through temperature control. Based on analysis of the engineering data, this paper summarizes the trends of changes in the transverse joints with different internal temperatures in the concrete of dam blocks. We define the opening temperature of a transverse joint and derive its calculation method. The results show that the opening temperature can be used as a key index of joint performance. Based on this, measures for the individualized optimization of an arch dam are provided to achieve a precise control of the opening time and opening amount of its transverse joints.

Key words: arch dam, transverse joint, opening temperature, transverse joint grouting