The features of stress-deformation state of the lock chamber walls

Introduction. Reinforced concrete walls of lock installations are critical structures, since a decrease in their level of safety in the course of long-term operation can lead to negative consequences. Characteristic features of such structures determine their stress-deformation state and bearing capacity. So, an integral part of the lock chamber walls are inter-block construction joints (both horizontal and vertical), the presence of which is taken into account by regulatory and methodical documents existing in the recent decades. Materials and methods. There are used analytical methods for processing results of observing stress-deformation state of massive reinforced-concrete lock chamber walls as well as computational procedures and normative documents. Results. The analysis of the condition of a number of lock chamber walls of such domestic objects as Canal named in honour of Moscow, Kashkhatau hydroelectric power station, Pavlovsky lock, etc. has been conducted for this work. A special character of crack formation and stress-deformation state is noted, which required urgent measures for their strengthening and repair. The analysis of normative document provisions is performed for the documents existing at the time of design work on the most of these installations and ones in effect at the present time. Conclusions. The characteristic features are revealed for reinforced concrete structures of the lock chamber walls, which determine the features of their stress-deformation state. Due to the imperfection of the normative documents that were in effect during the designing the most of such structures, an off-design state arose in a number of cases that required urgent measures to strengthen and repair them. Improvement work is going on at the directions of methodology for calculating the stress-deformation state and strength of reinforced concrete structures in the lock chamber walls.