Thermal Stress Modelling, High Sand RCC Mixes and In-Situ Modification of RCC Used for Construction of the

Cadiangullong Dam NSW

by Brian A Forbes1 and Jon T Williams2 ABSTRACT
The 43 metre high Cadiangullong Dam was constructed during 1997-1998 to supply untreated water for the Newcrest Cadia gold mine near Orange in NSW. The placement of the 110,000 m3 of RCC was performed without expensive thermal control techniques in an area of extreme climate conditions. Thermal finite element studies were undertaken during design to assess the effect of the climate extremes on construction and assist in the design of contraction joints. An RCC mix with sand proportions in excess of 50% of the fully crushed aggregate by weight was used to eliminate segregation. This also had the effect of requiring a low compaction effort to achieve density but exhibited a sheared surface texture if placed over wet. Following full scale trials the conventional concrete facing was superseded during the early stages of construction with an in situ modified RCC facing. The modified RCC consisted of a grout enriched internally vibrated RCC (GE-RCC) to provide a durable, impervious upstream face. This paper discusses the details of these three aspects and provides design, construction and performance data to date.

INTRODUCTION The Cadiangullong Dam shown in Figure 1 is a 43 metre high concrete gravity structure built during 19971998 to supply water for processing of gold ore for the new Cadia Mine, 23 km south of Orange in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, as shown in Figure 2. The Cadia Mine is operated by Cadia Holdings Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Newcrest Mining Limited. The mine is an open cut gold mine with on site mineral processing. The Cadiangullong Dam provides raw water for the processing of the ore(1).

Figure 1 - Cadiangullong Dam nearing Completion, Quarry in the Background

1 2

Manager, Dams Engineering, GHD Pty Ltd. Senior Dams Engineer, GHD Pty Ltd

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The dam is a straight structure 380 metres long at the crest and is of Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) construction as shown on Figures 3, 4 and 5. It has a 150 m long uncontrolled spillway over the dam crest which discharges over the stepped downstream face of the dam. The dam comprises 110,000 m3 of RCC and 18,000 m3 of conventional concrete. Roller Compacted Concrete is placed in 300 mm thick horizontal layers to form a monolithic mass without post cooling. Thermal studies can be undertaken to derive the heat generation of the RCC as it cures and the resulting thermal induced strains and tensile stresses. Segregation of the RCC mix during placement is a problem for some projects. To minimise segregation of the aggregates during placement an RCC mix with a higher percentage of sand than normally used in RCC was trialed. The effects of the high sand contents on segregation, compaction and concrete properties are described. The low strength of RCC mixes generally produces RCC which has limited resistance to erosion and often RCC has a high permeability compared to conventional concrete. A facing concrete or facing system is usually adopted for water storage dams. For this project, an in situ modification to the RCC, currently in use in China, was trialed to provide a facing system with conventional concrete properties. Use of a thin layer of mortar between each RCC layer was adopted to ensure achievement of adequate tensile resistance and cohesion between joints. This was confirmed by testing of RCC cores taken from the completed dam.

Figure 2 - Locality

Figure 3 - Cross Section

THERMAL ANALYSIS Because the RCC is placed as a monolith with little or no thermal control, some method of controlling thermally induced cracking is required. This is usually achieved with transverse contraction joints cut or hammered into the RCC after it is placed into which are placed metal joint inducer plates or fine dry sand. PVC water stops are installed vertically at the upstream face along the line of the transverse contraction joints to prevent seepage along the joint. Thermal stress assessment can be made during the design phase to determine likely joint spacing and the need or otherwise for pre-cooling of the RCC mixture.

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For the Cadiangullong Dam a finite element study was undertaken during design to assess the required spacing of the transverse contraction joints. This was achieved by determining the thermal gradient and resulting thermal induced stresses using a coupled thermal - structural stress analysis performed for a simulated incremental construction of the RCC dam. The software package, ANSYS, was used on a PC work station to model a 2D cross section of the dam. Estimated ambient conditions and material properties were used at the design stage to simulate placement of RCC, heat generation from hydration of the cement and heat diffusion from loss to the atmosphere. The resulting thermal distribution was coupled with the structural analysis. The analysis was performed for a period of 30 weeks to simulate the expected 15 week dam construction program and the commencement of the dissipation of the core temperature. Material properties and environmental factors were used to model the RCC placement. Climate data was obtained from the Bureau of Meteorology and, as the construction was intended to take place over autumn 1997, a predicted average monthly ambient temperature of 20oC was used. Blue Circle Southern Cement advised that a release of heat of 210-230 J/g could be expected after 7 days with a total of 280-310 J/g after 28 days for their low heat cement. The initial analysis used a linear reduction in heat generation from 29 to 0 J/s/m3 from time of placement to 28 days. This gave a total of 35.4 MJ/m3 for a modelled RCC mix of 75 kg/m3 of cement and 95 kg/m3 of flyash. An RCC placement temperature of 15oC was used representing the average expected temperature of the aggregate stockpiles assuming that the bulk of the aggregate production would be carried out during winter and cementitious materials were received at 50oC. Conventional structural finite element material properties were used for the RCC together with specific thermal analysis properties. Key structural analysis properties included a modulus of elasticity of 20 Gpa, a density of 2400 kg/m3, a poissons ratio of 0.2 and a coefficient of thermal expansion of 1 x 10-5, all of which are typical concrete properties. No tests were performed on any of the materials proposed for construction at the time of selecting the parameters. Thermal analysis properties were selected after researching similar projects. Typical RCC values, similar to those adopted for the ANSYS study of Pangue RCC dam in Chile, were used for the thermal conductivity and the specific heat of the concrete. A value critical to the realistic modelling of thermal generation and dissipation in a dam is the film coefficient, or the heat transfer rate at the surface of the concrete. This parameter depends on factors such as the moisture condition of the surface of the concrete, the air temperature (and hence thermal gradient at the surface) and the wind speed or rate of removal of thermal energy at the surface. Heat gain from absorption of the sun s energy can be modelled by reducing the rate of heat transfer without resorting to complex black body radiation analyses. A film coefficient of 18 J/s m2 deg C was adopted, being representative of heat transfer at a surface with low to moderate wind speed across the surface. For comparison, concrete in contact with water could be expected to have a much higher film coefficient of about 800 J/s m2 deg C. Thermocouples were installed in the dam to monitor actual temperature, as shown on Figure 3. A comparison of predicted temperatures versus measured temperatures is shown in Figure 6 for the thermocouples in the central portion of the section at RL 765 which is close to the base of the dam. There is a relatively good agreement between RCC temperatures from the thermal analysis carried out during design and the actual measured temperatures from thermocouples at the same location. The thermocouples at the centre of the dam show close agreement and a slightly lesser agreement is shown at a thermocouple located 7 m from the downstream face of the dam. This is to be expected as atmospheric conditions have very little impact in the core of the dam as the concrete is under adiabatic conditions. The prediction of the rate of heat rise and the peak temperature was in good agreement indicating that the data supplied from the cement manufacturer was reliable. The thermocouples were not able to be read at around the time the temperature peaked because of the construction of the gallery which limited access to the instruments, as shown by the gap in the readings on Figure 6. A lesser agreement was found at the outer faces of the dam. This was to be expected as placement of the RCC was delayed and in fact largely occurred during winter when the average daily temperature was around 1o to 2oC with minimums reaching minus 8oC, together with two minor snowfalls. This was substantially
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cooler than the average autumn temperature of 20 C assumed in the model. Likewise, the latter stages of the 30 week period run during design were actually during summer, when peak daily temperatures were 35o to 40oC and RCC construction was still in progress (actual total RCC construction period was 32 weeks). The overall average temperature during construction was close to 20oC which, with the exception of cyclic seasonal temperatures affecting the outer 3 to 4 m of the dam, was close to the average air temperature used in the thermal model.

Figure 6 Comparison Of Thermal Analysis Predictions and Actual Readings of Thermocouples at RL 765 m
30 28 Temperature (deg C) 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Time Elapsed Since RCC Layer Placed (weeks) 35 40 design centre design DS-7m actual centre actual DS-7m

The thermal model developed was therefore a reasonable indicator of core temperatures. However, the large range of air temperatures which occurred at the site during construction resulted in much higher thermal gradients close to the surface than modelled. Using the autumn air temperatures, and the method of Tatro and Schrader(2) to estimate residual thermal strain to be taken up by cracks, an average joint spacing of about 30 metres was adopted. This included a factor of safety in deference to the assumed construction program, timing and the additional thermal stress imposed during severe winters. The contraction joint spacing adopted is consistent with the contraction joint spacing adopted on other RCC dam projects. An additional benefit of the thermal/stress analysis was that it defined the location of peak tensile stresses from thermal and static loading. Excavation of the foundation exposed a blocky and stepped foundation, especially on the left abutment. The finite element analyses indicated that peak tensile stresses (or lowest compressive stresses) were to be expected on the upstream edge of the dam at the heel. Therefore, for maximum control of thermal and tensile stresses the actual positioning of the contraction joints should be located where a foundation step meets the heel of the dam. This was adopted during construction and as a result the as-placed contraction joints are not equally spaced, spacing varying between 14.0 - 37.8 m, average being 23.8 m. RCC MIX DESIGN The predominant construction and placement difficulty with RCC mixes is the tendency for the mix to segregate upon placement. This is because of the high proportion of aggregate in the mix relative to conventional concrete mixes and the placement method, which is usually end dumping from trucks or drop chutes from conveyors. Therefore an objective of the mix design, in addition to normal design strength and
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cohesion requirements, was to produce a mix that was contractor friendly , that is it could be handled without segregation thereby ensuring that a weak porous layer was not created by a voided zone at the bottom of the placed RCC lift. The RCC mix was laboratory trialed well prior to construction. A significant limitation to the mix design was that the RCC had to be produced from a fully crushed product. Environmental and transport limitations as well as source distance meant that use of imported sand was not a realistic option for the RCC mix. A well graded natural sand will improve the workability of the RCC over a fully crushed product, which often results in a harshmix with a tendency to bleedbecause of the angular nature of the crushed fine particles. Some considerable effort was spent in determining a mix which fulfilled the requirements of minimal segregation and showed acceptable workability. The resulting mix developed contained approximately 2200 kg/m3 of aggregate comprising 45-55% sand, 4-7% fines and a maximum aggregate size of 53 mm. The aggregate was produced and processed on site from a quarry in local andesite derived rock. This rock had a compressive strength of 200 MPa and, as could be expected, it proved difficult to produce the high sand and fines contents. Cement and flyash contents used in the mix at the start of placement were 90 + 90 kg/m3 respectively which were reduced to 85+85 kg/m3 at the final stages of construction to reduce costs and hydration heat rise. A water content of about 6.4% by weight or 150 kg/m3 of total water (including aggregate water) was used. The cement was a blend of 60% Portland cement and 40% ground granulated blast furnace slag.

Figure 7 RCC Aggregate Grading (excluding cementitious material)

100.0 90.0 80.0 % Passing by Weight 70.0 60.0 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 0.01 0.1 1 Particle Size (mm) 10 100 Actual Average Actual Minimum Actual Maximum Design Minimum Design Maximum

Figure 7 shows the high percentage of sand and the slight deficiency of fines obtained with the fully crushed product. The mean as-placed grading lies in the middle of the specified limits with the exception of the fine and coarse material. It was the contractor s choice to keep the maximum particle size smaller than the allowable 53 mm. The high sand content resulted in an RCC mix which compacted with minimum effort, had very little tendency to segregate but did have a tendency to surface shear under the smooth roller when slightly over wet. There was little or no segregation observed during construction, even when the mix was dumped
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straight from the Volvo A25C articulated off road dumpers directly onto the previous compacted RCC surface. Some segregation did occur if the RCC was dump-spread and this method was discouraged. The high sand mix compacted fully within only 2-3 passes of a vibratory single drum steel roller (a Dynapac CA301 of about 12 tonnes). The compacted lift felt spongy underfoot indicating that the aggregate was fully suspended in a paste matrix with little aggregate to aggregate interlock. Further rolling at this stage tended to produce a pronounced shearing in the top few millimetres of the RCC lift. This was evident by a fine pattern of shallow surface cracks and occasional flakes of RCC being plucked off the RCC lift surface by the roller drum. This caused considerable concern during construction but no evidence of shearing was found on inspection of some early shallow 150 mm diameter investigation cores and of the 100 mm diameter cores taken later from the dam at the completion of construction. It was considered that the shearing was a result of the high sand content in the mix combined with the effect of over rolling. As it was observed that the RCC performed as expected until about the 4th pass of the roller (in vibratory mode), it was concluded that shearing resulted from excessive pore pressure build up in the RCC, as can be experienced in a conventional impervious earth fill. It was observed that seal rolling with a light (2 tonne Dynapac CC10) twin drum steel roller was effective in sealing the shearing. Since at least 4 passes of the heavy roller were inevitable from normal construction operations, reducing the tendency for shearing was achieved by reducing the moisture content to about 5.6%. Because of the apparent ease of achieving full compaction, ie. 98% of theoretical air free density (minimum), compared to other RCC projects where generally 6-10 vibrating passes are required for the same compaction standard, a detailed study was carried out on extracted cores to determine the density of the compacted RCC for each of eight 35 mm thick slices cut from a 300 mm lift. The difference between the most and least dense 35 mm thick sample cut from a lift was 1.8% or 45 kg/m3 whilst the difference between the top 70 mm and bottom 70 mm of the lift was 0.1% or 3 kg/m3 ie. it was clear that the 300 mm thick RCC lifts were uniformly compacted to full depth, notwithstanding that the lift had only received 3 to 4 passes of the roller. Future RCC dams using similar mixes may be able to take advantage of this by increasing lift thickness, thereby reducing total costs and the number of potential lift joint failure planes. IN-SITU MODIFIED RCC FACING Up to this point RCC dams have typically been constructed using a variety of methods to form the upstream and downstream faces. These include conventional concrete placed against formwork, or slip formed using a kerbing machine, use of precast concrete panels, or simply formed RCC - which, unless special rigorous compaction procedures are adopted against the formwork, often results in a porous, segregated and poorly compacted surface with low durability and not always aesthetically acceptable. Of these, use of conventional concrete facing has traditionally been the preferred method. This involves a second batch plant, special haulage and placing plant and considerable cost, as well as time in the daily RCC construction programme. Whether it forms a well bonded monolithic mass with the RCC behind is frequently questioned and a cause of design concern. A totally new procedure was trialed in Australia at the Cadiangullong Dam. This achieved considerable savings in cost and effort, had no influence on the RCC placement schedule and resulted in an extremely durable, high quality, visually uniform and impervious facing which is monolithic with the RCC lift. It was used for the entire upstream face, the upper vertical part of the downstream face and a portion of the stepped downstream face. The facing comprises formed RCC, placed as part of the RCC lift at the time the lift is placed. After spreading and prior to compacting, the RCC is modified in place by simply dosing it over the surface with a cement grout applied over the width of facing required. After the grout has penetrated the loose RCC the Grout Enriched RCC (GE-RCC as it was termed at the Cadiangullong Dam) is compacted by an immersion vibrator in the same manner as if it were normal slump conventional concrete. This compaction process ensures the grout distributes uniformally through the RCC whilst the bedding mortar, placed over

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the previous lift surface, as part of the RCC lift construction treatment described later in the paper, works its way up into the lower zone of the RCC. The mix proportions and dosage rate of the grout are determined on the basis of maintaining, or if necessary increasing, the RCC strength in the facing area, as well as the ability of the grout to penetrate through the full 300 mm lift thickness. If the grout is too thick or the RCC mix is not sufficiently porous at the time the grout is applied, the grout will only penetrate the upper zone of the lift, or simply pool over the RCC surface; under these conditions compaction by immersion vibrator is ineffective. At Cadiangullong Dam compaction of the face was achieved with 50 mm diameter flextool poker vibrators. Grout was hand mixed in a wheel barrow and applied by bucket. Three labourers were required, on average, to keep up with the RCC placement. The cost of the facing is simply the cost of the cement grout, labour and poker vibrators, plus of course the cost of the RCC and formwork.

Figure 8 - GE-RCC being Compacted against the Upstream Face

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The resulting surface of the GE-RCC at the upstream face of the dam is extremely good. On only 2 or 3 occasions did the labourers miss compacting short lengths of a GE-RCC lift, these were dug out and repaired after the forms were removed. Figure 8 shows the typical surface achieved. Where GE-RCC was used on the downstream steps (lower of the two 300 mm lifts forming each 600 mm step) the surface in most areas had less voids and was generally superior to that of the conventional concrete lift directly above. A number of 150 mm diameter test cores were drilled horizontally into the dam face in the centre of the lift and also along a lift joint, through the GE-RCC facing and into the RCC body of the dam behind, as seen in Figures 8 and 9. The GE-RCC transitioned into the RCC without any sign of structural discontinuity or change; other than colour change it was not possible to identify the contact between the two. Samples of GE-RCC were tested for compressive strength. Average strength at 145 days was 26.5 MPa, whilst the 180 day strength of the RCC cylinder samples manufactured from RCC placed to the same lifts as those cored was 27.6 MPa. The average density of the GE-RCC was 2,490 kg/m3 compared to 2,545 kg/m3 for the cored RCC beyond the GE-RCC and 2,521 kg/m3 for the RCC overall.

Figure 9 - Typical Surface Quality of the GE-RCC Upstream Face and Test Core Locations

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Figure 10

150 mm Cores. Core C1 is horizontal, the right hand 0.3 m (approx) being in GE-RCC, the remainder in RCC; typically no transition or change is evident between the two, the lift joint between lifts 19 and 20 is marked on the right hand end. C2 is a vertical core drilled from lift 16 into lift 15, the joint is marked by an arrow near the number 2.

It is expected that GE-RCC will be strongly favoured in future RCC dams. It was trialed successfully at Cadiangullong for encasing the PVC watertops in the upper elevations of the dam. It could also be used for encasing built in pipework etc. where in the past conventional concrete has been used. Whether or not it could be used in local zones where reinforced concrete might be required in the RCC body, say around galleries, remains to be trialed, but there does not, at this stage, seem to be any reason why it should not work successfully. LIFT JOINT TREATMENT, SHEAR AND TENSILE RESISTANCE This is one of the most crucial (and controversial) issues in RCC dams engineering and, at the concept design stage of the Cadiangullong Dam, was recognised as such. Bond between lift joints is strongly influenced by segregation of the RCC and by the age of the lift joint at the time the next lift is placed. Segregation was eliminated by using a high sand content wetter mix as discussed earlier. Once initial set of an exposed RCC lift surface has occurred, the bond achievable between the lift joints starts to reduce. One of the ways to enhance bond is to use a thin layer of bonding material, bedding concrete or mortar , spread over the lift surface just before placing the next lift. Bedding mortar was used for Cadiangullong Dam because it was expected that lift surfaces could be anything between 10 to 36 hours old. Bedding concrete (20 mm maximum size aggregate) as opposed to mortar has to be placed thicker, 20 mm instead of 6 mm, and therefore costs more and takes more effort to place. It is also more difficult to retain its workability, being no use if allowed to stiffen up and is not readily worked into the RCC lift compacted above.
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At Cadiangullong Dam, bedding mortar was applied to the full surface area of each lift where the lift surface was older than 2 hours. A 6 mm minimum thickness was specified with the mortar having a high slump and compressive strength of 15 MPa, the same as the RCC. The cost of the bedding mortar was less than 4% of the final cost of the RCC. In terms of equivalent cost of flyash this equated to an extra 20 kg/m3 of cement or 50 kg/m3 of flyash, neither of which would have achieved the same bond between un-bedded lift joints. By adopting a positive approach to achieve bond, moderate tension and cohesion stresses could be permitted for Cadiangullong and hence some of the cost of the bedding mortar could be recovered by reduced RCC quantities from a steeper downstream slope. In addition a lower standard of lift surface clean up of loose particles could be tolerated, especially if application of the bedding mortar was vigorous and incorporated the particles within the mortar mix. Figure 11 shows the bedding mortar being brushed over and into the RCC lift surface by a strip of conveyor belting attached to the bucket of a small tractor working just in advance of the dozer spreading out the RCC lift.

Figure 11 - Photo showing Spreading of Bedding Mortar The results of two vertically cored holes through the full height of the RCC dam showed approximately 90% of the lift joints recovered by the 100 mm diameter core were intact on recovery This is similar to the 8590% achieved on recent Chinese projects and compares favourably with the 60-70% typically recovered on recent major projects in Chile and Colombia, where the joint has either failed or severe porosity was evident at or above the joint. Direct shear testing of the cored RCC body and RCC lift joints was carried out to determine the peak and residual friction angles ( ) and the cohesion strength (C). By testing the joints under a low normal stress, which would be the condition in the upstream zone of the dam during storage, any error in the adopted friction angle used to determine the cohesion strength of an individual lift joint was reduced. The results of the fifteen tests carried out gave the average values presented in Table 1 (range/standard deviation for lift joint results being shown alongside in brackets).

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Table 1 : Shear Testing of Cored RCC and Lift Joint Samples Shear Parameter Friction Angle (degrees) (peak) (residual) Cohesion Strength (kPa) RCC Body 59.5 55.0 3500 RCC Lift Joint not determined* 61.0 (40 -75 /10o approx) 3300 (1190-4790/1110)

*use of low normal stress approach did not provide adequate stress range and data. The high friction angles are attributed in part to the high strength and angularity of the RCC aggregate and bedding mortar sand. By comparison, tests on cores from the very high paste RCC in Upper Stillwater dam, which was completed in the USA in 1987 and used 94 kg/m3 of cement and 207 kg/m3 of flyash as one of the mixes, gave friction angles and cohesion strength for lift joints without bedding mortar of 53o (peak), 52o (residual) and 2,480 kPa respectively(3). Full testing of the 100 mm diameter RCC Cadiangullong Dam core (average sample age of 243 days, range 123 to 324) gave the results shown in Table 2. Table 2 : Summary of Core Sample Testing from the Completed Dam Test Density (kg/m3) Compressive Strength (MPa) Tensile Strength (MPa) RCC body direct RCC body indirect lift joint direct No of Tests 80 30 15 15 20 Average 2521 19.75 1.43 3.82 1.00 Std. Dev. 26.95 4.01 0.35 0.66 0.46 Coeff. of Variation(%)* 1.07 20.34 24.63 17.39 45.88

*The values are Excellentto Goodaccording to ICOLD(4) For purposes of comparison the calculated maximum working tensile stress is 33 kPa during PMF and 214 kPa during the MDE event. To achieve a shear friction factor (SFF) of 3 (normal load case), based on =45o a cohesion of 416 kPa was required. With a cohesion of zero and =45o, the SFF was 1.22. To achieve a SFF of 1.3 (extreme load case - PMF) a cohesion of less than 10 kPa was required, with C=0 and =45o the SFF was 1.28. The core results therefore compare favourably with design assumptions and strength requirements. Use of 100 mm core instead of 150 mm core, which would have been preferred and conformed with practice elsewhere, was an expediency/cost based decision. Average core strength of 19.75 MPa is significantly lower than the 31.20 MPa 180 day average compressive strength of the 150 mm cylinder samples manufactured from RCC placed in the dam and tested by the site laboratory. This difference is considered by the authors to be largely due to the coring action cutting aggregate particles such that the smaller portion is left only partly bound into the body of the sample, thereby resulting in the effective area of the core sample being somewhat less than the actual measured area. This difference in strength is typically found on other RCC projects to be 15-20% lower for 150 mm cored samples than for the equivalent manufactured cylinder samples; in this case the value is closer to 30%, being due to the smaller core diameter and proportional difference in effective /actual area of the core samples. The core compression and tensile results in Table 2 can therefore be considered as being lower boundvalues.

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INITIAL PERFORMANCE Filling of the dam commenced slowly following closure of the diversion outlet on 30 September 1997 due to the drought. However at the end of June 1998 recent heavy rainfall and a 1 in 20 year snowfall in June 1998 had brought the reservoir to 1.5 m from FSL. On 9 July 1998 it reached its full capacity of 4200 Ml and spilled - 58 weeks after RCC placing commenced. At 1.5 m below FSL the total seepage through the RCC and the transverse contraction joint waterstops was approximately 3 l/s, of which about 2.2 l/s was from three transverse joints where it is possible some damage to or improper installation of the water stop may be the cause. Seepage from the foundation drain holes downstream of the grout curtain was about 4 l/s. With the present low winter temperatures the transverse contraction joints on the surface of the dam have opened up to 3-8 mm on the crest and 2-5 mm at the downstream toe, whilst in the gallery openings are correspondingly only 0.5 - 1.5 mm . Thermocouples are showing the RCC temperature of the central part of the dam to be at 20-27oC, whilst the outer 1 m is down to 9 C on the downstream face and the upstream face is 12-15 C (ie. reservoir water temperature). Besides the seepage past the three waterstops the dam is performing as expected. CONCLUSIONS Cadiangullong is Australia s 11th RCC dam(5) to be completed since Copperfield Dam at Kidston(6) was completed in 1984. It incorporates some of the latest RCC developments which provide for good lift joint bond, simple external face construction and an RCC mix which displays no tendency to segregate and compacts uniformly through 300 mm thick lifts with less than 4 vibrating passes of a steel drum roller. Finite element thermal and stress analyses using ANSYS provide a good understanding of the thermal condition, the resulting stresses and enabled contraction joint spacing to be determined. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are grateful to Cadia Holdings Pty Ltd for the permission given to prepare and present this paper. They would also like to acknowledge the other organisations involved in the project, namely Bechtel Minproc Joint Venture the dam construction and mine development Project Managers, and Barclay Mowlem Construction Ltd, the main contractor for the dam. Finally they thank GHD Pty Ltd for the encouragement and assistance provided in the preparation of the paper. REFERENCES (1) Franklin, J.M., Weller, G.A. and Meares, I., Integrated Water Management for a Major Mine Development. Conference Proceedings of the Australian National Committee on Large Dams, Perth, October 1997. (2) Tatro, S. and Schrader, E.K., Thermal Analysis for RCC - A Practical Approach. Roller Compacted Concrete III, ASCE, New York, February 1992 - pp389-406. (3) Drahushak - Crow, R. and Dolen, T.P., Evaluation of Cores from Two RCC Gravity Dams. Roller Compacted Concrete II, ASCE, New York, March 1988 - pp203-209. (4) ICOLD Bulletin (Draft May 1997), State-of-the-Art of RCC Dams - Table 4, Coefficient of Variation of Various Tests Relative to the Perceived Level of Quality Control. (5) Forbes, B.A., Australian RCC Practice: Nine Dams Each Different. International Symposium on Roller Compaction Concrete Dams, Santander Spain. October 1995 - Volume 3 - pp1407-1435. (6) Forbes, B.A. and Delaney M.B., Design and Construction of Copperfield River Gorge Dam. Australian National Committee on Large Dams Bulletin Issue No. 71, August 1985 - pp21-45.

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