Nonlinear Analysis of Steel Liner—Reinforced Concrete Penstocks

This paper is concerned with the nonlinear structural responses of steel liner-reinforced concrete penstocks of a concrete dam subjected to an internal pressure. The study reported herein consists of three major parts: 1) testing of two large penstock specimens, 2) a quasi-analytical solution for preliminary design, and 3) a detailed nonlinear finite element analysis. Each of the three parts are described in the paper with some detail. The quasi-analytical solution, although limited in geometric modeling, can give reasonable predictions on the overall deformation behavior and the ultimate failure strengths of penstocks in question. The finite element analysis, on the other hand, provided more detailed development and distribution of concrete cracking as a function of the applied pressure.