Presentation
António Lopes Batista
Head of Department
The Concrete Dams Department is dedicated to the themes of concrete and masonry dams, structures in and on rock masses and geographical engineering applied to monitoring of civil engineering structures. The Department studies the behaviour of large concrete and masonry dams and associated underground structures, including:
· Characterisation of structural properties of dams and their foundations and underground structures in rock masses.
· Monitoring and safety control in the design, construction, first filling, operation and rehabilitation stages.
· Modelling of the behaviour of concrete and masonry dams.
· Application of geodetic methods to monitor the behaviour of civil engineering structures.
It provides services to various public and private entities in Portugal and abroad, especially in Portuguese-speaking countries, in its areas of activity.
The Department centralises the functions assigned to LNEC in the Dam Safety Regulation (Decree-Law No. 21/2018 of March 28) concerning the structural safety of concrete and masonry dams.
The Department has competencies in the following areas:
· Site studies and rock mass characterisation (in the area of rock mechanics).
· Modelling of the thermal, structural, and hydraulic behaviour of structures, mainly through mathematical models (finite element, distinct element and particle methods), but also experimentally (physical models and field tests, both static and dynamic).
· Instrumentation and methodologies for monitoring and interpretation of the structures’ behaviour.
· Monitoring displacements in civil engineering structures using geodetic methods, including new technologies provided by satellites.
From an organizational point of view, its activity develops as follows.:
· at the Modelling and Rock Mechanics Unit, which is dedicated to the development and analysis of results of mathematical and physical models for simulation studies or interpretation of the behaviour of structures, as well as for the characterisation of their structural properties and of the rock masses and foundations.
· at the Monitoring Unit, which is dedicated to the monitoring, interpretation and analysis of the behaviour of dams.
· at the Applied Geodesy Unit, which is responsible for carrying out studies on the development and application of geodetic methods for monitoring the behaviour of dams and other civil engineering structures, as well as studies in the field of geographic engineering.