Underground hydroelectric schemes

Abstract

The purpose of this Chapter is to analyze the behavior of underground works associated to hy-droelectric schemes with particular emphasis to the development of numerical models for predicting their structural behavior. The present work starts with a brief introduction to the different types of underground hy-droelectric schemes with an illustration to the specific works related to the hydraulic circuit, the powerhouse complex and surge chambers. Sections concerning the methodologies followed by numerical modeling of the underground structures and for risk analysis are presented. Also the numerical use of inverse methodologies for the identification of parameters is evaluated. Two examples of application of numerical modeling are pre-sented. The first case is related to the application of numerical modeling to the Venda Nova II hydroelectric scheme in Portugal, where innovative numerical methodologies were developed and validated using real test-ing and monitoring data. An optimization algorithm was used with a 3D model for the power caverns. The se-cond case regards to numerical studies performed to Jinping II hydroelectric scheme in China. The project in-volves infrastructures planning and developed on a large scale. Results and studies performed by numerical models are presented. Finally, considerations about numerical modeling of large underground structures from hydroelectric schemes are presented.