Crack status analysis for concrete dams based on measured entropy

The integrity and safety of concrete dams are seriously affected by the existing cracks in dam bodies, and some serious cracks may cause dam failure or disaster. The propagation of cracks in concrete dams is accompanied by changes in energy distribution, which can be represented by changes in the structure’s system entropy. Therefore, the entropy theory can be used in analyzing the behavior of dam cracks. Due to the randomness and locality of crack propagation, it is difficult to predict the location of cracks by traditional monitoring methods. To solve this problem, the influence of spatial positions of monitoring points on inspection zones is represented by a weight index, and the weight index is determined by the distance measure method proposed in this paper. Through the weighted linear fusion method, the entropy of multiple monitoring points is obtained for analyzing the behavior of dam cracks in the selected zones. Meanwhile, the catastrophe theory is used as the variation criterion of an entropy sequence in order to predict the instability time of dam cracks. Case studies are put forward on a high arch dam, and the fusion entropy is calculated according to the monitoring data from strain gauges. Results show that the proposed method can effectively predict the occurrence time and location of dam cracks regardless of the layout of monitoring instruments, and it is a new way to analyze the occurrence and propagation of dam cracks.