LAS COGOTAS ARCH DAM. STRESSES FROM CONCRETE EXTENSOMETERS

摘要

The calculation models that the engineer uses for his confirmations and structural studies are much more sophisticated today. Nevertheless, they exclude important parcels of structural behaviour and transcendental repercussions for the work; even if they seem complex and complete. The deviations and anomalies are usually solved, in these models, by simply varying some parameters until an adjustment between theoretical and real results. Listening what the dam tells us through its monitoring system is an alternative way. It might be the only one, in the current state of the art, able to understand its behaviour. It has probably many ramifications, but it is much richer in results. A detailed analysis of the monitoring data from its beginning shows up a spectrum of shades that will allow the engineer to identify the dam within its natural environment. The environment has en enormous influence in the behaviour of the dam. This method is not comparable with the indifference, and in many occasions frivolity, of a wrong use of calculation. The presented analysis, exposed here in an extremely summarised way, constitutes just one of the chapters of the report of a dam behaviour. We expect it to raise positive restlessness and reinforce, in sum, the importance of monitoring. One of the engineer's primordial objectives is to check whether what he has imagined is fulfilled or not. He must try to explain the origin and causes of the anomalies, as well as to look for solutions and remedies. Undoubtedly, the analysis of the monitoring data will help to enlarge, day by day, the field of the imagination.