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Based on the history of cracks in dams, there are some of the places where
cracks are most likely to occur in dams:
cracks at the base of an arch dam
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cracks near the foundation and on the downstream side of a gravity
dam
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cracks in the arches of an arched buttress dam
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These cracks can start for many reasons, such as earthquakes, settling or
other movement of the foundation, temperature variations, or chemical
reactions, as you saw earlier. The
cracks in a gravity or arch dam might look like this in a
two-dimensional simulation (cracks in green):
cracks in a gravity dam simulation
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cracks in an arch dam simulation
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What happens to the crack -- does
it grow?
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