The development and verification of relocating mesh method for the computation of temperature field of RCC dam

Based on the construction property of rolled compacted concrete dam cast layer by layer, three-dimensional finite element relocating mesh method was developed in the paper to simulate construction process and compute temperature field. The computation model of relocating mesh method is expatiated in detail. The feasibility and error of the relocating mesh method were analyzed and demonstrated. The computation results were verified with the temperature observation data of an RCC arch dam. The results show that the method has high calculation precision, less computer run time and less memory. The values computed with the method are in the same trend with the observation data. The method has proved to be effective in simulating construction process and computing temperature field of RCC dam.