water Article Minimizing the Principle Stresses of Powerhoused Rock-Fill Dams Using Control Turbine Running Units: Application of Finite Element Method Ameen Mohammed Salih Ameen 1,2, Zainah Ibrahim 1, Faridah Othman 1,*, Nadhir Al-Ansari 3,* and Zaher Mundher Yaseen 4 ID 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia;
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[email protected] (Z.I.) 2 Assistant Lecturer, Water Resources Department, University of Baghdad, Iraq 3 Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lulea University of Technology, 97187 Lulea, Sweden 4 Sustainable Developments in Civil Engineering Research Group, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam;
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[email protected] (N.A.-A.); Tel.: +603-79674584 (F.O.); +46-920-491-858 (N.A.-A.) Received: 11 June 2018; Accepted: 22 August 2018; Published: 25 August 2018 Abstract: This study focuses on improving the safety of embankment dams by considering the effects of vibration due to powerhouse operation on the dam body. The study contains two main parts. In the first part, ANSYS-CFX is used to create the three-dimensional (3D) Finite Volume (FV) model of one vertical Francis turbine unit. The 3D model is run by considering various reservoir conditions and the dimensions of units. The Re-Normalization Group (RNG) k-# turbulence model is employed, and the physical properties of water and the flow characteristics are defined in the turbine model. In the second phases, a 3D finite element (FE) numerical model for a rock-fill dam is created by using ANSYS®, considering the dam connection with its powerhouse represented by four vertical Francis turbines, foundation, and the upstream reservoir.