The concrete panel of earth-rock dams in cold regions tends to crack due to the combination effect of non-uniform foundation settlement, ice expansion loads, and freeze-thaw damage. In this work, simulations are designed to investigate the effects of freeze-thaw damage degrees on the fracture behavior caused by the partial detachment and ice expansion loads on concrete panels. Results show that the range of detached panels and freeze-thaw damage degree are the dominant factors that affect the overall load-bearing capacity of the panel and the failure cracking modes, whereas the panel slope is a secondary factor. The failure cracking modes are found to be a combination of type II fracture modes, including compression-shear and tension-shear cracking. Besides, with the increase of detachment area and the degree of freezing-thawing damage, the concrete panels are prone to appear bending tension cracks at the bottom and a more serious smeared crack layer at the top.

Figure 1. Discretization of LDPM

Figure 2. Crack opening modes on different loading stage

Figure 3. The variation of the displacement-bearing capacity curve of the panel with freeze-thaw cycles under different detached ranges

Figure 4. Panel failure contour under different detached ranges

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32604/sdhm.2024.052869