Analyses of disking phenomenon and stress field in the region of an underground powerhouse

SummaryThe large underground power chambers of Ertan Hydropower Station will be built near the abutment on the left bank in a region with high initial stresses. In this paper, a statistical analysis is presented for the phenomenon of core disking in the dam site. On the basis of a number of stress measurements, the region of the river valley could be divided into three different geostress zones. It is shown that there exists a rather high horizontal stress of up to 30 MPa, and even over 60 MPa at the bottom of the river bed. A least square method has been introduced to get a continuous field of stress, which approximates the variable measured stress data.