The Inversion Analysis and Material Parameter Optimization of a High Earth-Rockfill Dam during Construction Periods

Abstract

Inversion analysis is usually an efficient solution to process the monitoring data of earth-rockfill dams. However, it is still difficult to obtain calculation results that are consistent with monitoring data due to different construction statuses. To deal with this situation and to introduce a new solution to improve calculation accuracy, the general method of inversion analysis based on back-propagation neural networks and the original step-by-step inversion method assuming that the parameters of the constitutive model vary with construction periods are introduced and verified in this work. Then, both methods are applied in the inversion analysis of a high gravelly soil core rock-fill dam during construction periods. Moreover, the relationship between the inversed material parameters and the stress values of the core wall is discussed. The material parameters are further optimized to obtain more accurate displacement values. The results show that the step-by-step inversion method has a higher accuracy in vertical compression values compared with the conventional inversion method, the trend of material parameter K is more significant than other parameters, and the proposed variable parameter constitutive model has an accuracy between the step-by-step and conventional inversion methods. Conclusions can be drawn that the original step-by-step inversion method has more advantages than the conventional method and the variable parameter constitutive model proposed in this paper might be more suitable for the analysis of a high earth-rockfill dam during construction periods.

Keywords

• rock-fill dam
• inversion analysis
• Duncan–Chang
• material parameter optimization
• BP neural network