The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, March 2004.

Copyright 2004 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or
in paper form without permission of ASHRAE.

Cooling for Dams

By George C. Briley, P.E., Fellow/Life Member ASHRAE

hen concrete is used in massive structures, such as dams, foundations, and some concrete highways, it must be cooled to minimize
cracking. Refrigeration is required to offset the heat of hydration of
cement after pouring. Cooling causes concrete to shrink while the mass is
still in a semifluid state, which reduces the possibility of cracking.

Cement has a heat of hydration of 180 Btu/lb (419 kJ/kg).

However, this can be reduced to about 90 to 100 Btu/lb (209 to
233 kJ/kg) by the addition of certain substitutes such as
pozzalanas.
Heat of hydration can be controlled in several ways. One
way is to embed coils in the concrete mass and circulate cool
or cold water through them using a closed loop system. I visited a dam that had been cooled this way, and after 50 years the
cooling water at the exit of the system was still about 0.5F
(0.3C) higher than the entering water. These huge structures,
such as Glenn Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, do not cool
down without using either an embedded coil system or concrete that is cooled before pouring.
Where the concrete is cooled prior to pouring, the components must be reduced in temperature to 40F or 50F (4C or
10C) depending on the specifications (usually done by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). Aggregate for the concrete in
large structures varies from 6 in. to 0.75 in. in diameter (162
mm to 19 mm) and smaller, depending on the size of the structure. If the ambient temperature is high, then the aggregate
must be cooled. Several methods exist for cooling aggregate.
Using water is the simplest method. However, the drawback
to the concrete mixture is the amount of free water that clings
to the aggregate may exceed the water requirements for the
concrete mix.
In the air blast method, 25F to 35F (32C to 37C) air is
directed through the aggregate held in large bins. The air is
recirculated. This works best for large aggregate. Small aggregate is usually cooled by spraying chilled water over it while it
is being conveyed to the batch plant. The large aggregate bins
usually are elevated well above the concrete mixer that is a part
of the batch plant. The other components of the mix (cement,
sand, and fly ash) are mixed with aggregate in the batch plant.
Cooling these components is somewhat difficult. However, there
are times when the other components need to be cooled lower
than normal to provide the proper concrete cooling.
The capacity of the concrete mixer may be as large as 6 ft3
(0.17 m3) of cement or even larger to cope with the time constraints of pouring these huge structures. The final additions
to the mix are normally water (at as close to 32F [0C] as
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ASHRAE Journal

possible), and flake ice that is normally slightly subcooled.

Sometimes, the water content must be 100% ice because of the
high ambient temperature found in desert conditions. The heat
balance for the concrete pour must be such that all of the components are cooled enough to offset the cement heat of hydration as the concrete sets.
Large dam structures require massive refrigeration systems
that normally use ammonia as the refrigerant. The systems must
cool water and make ice. The more aggressive the dam timetable, the larger the refrigeration system. One large dam structure had a 700 ton (2462 kW) per day flake ice system and a
total of some 40,000 hp (29 840 kW) of refrigeration compressors for making the ice and chilling water. Most of the refrigeration systems use liquid overfeed systems to distribute the
ammonia refrigerant throughout the systems.
Smaller concrete structures require much less refrigeration
per cubic yard because the structure cools more rapidly than
large ones. Most small dams and locks that control flooding
and provide a transportation system use only chilled water for
cooling the mix.
Some states require special temperatures for pouring concrete roadways. Most can be satisfied by using chilled water.
The majority of these systems use standard air-cooled water
chillers with the outlet thermostat turned down to 40F (4C)
or lower (if the unit will perform).
Some architects in warm climates require building foundation cement to be cooled before pouring. Most of these are
small users and usually are not that extensive. Nearly all of
these requirements can be handled by the local party ice
manufacturer.
Dams are built on major rivers for three purposes, irrigation,
flood control, and power generation. Few suitable sites are left
in the United States, and environmentalists have made it almost impossible to build on them. Despite the fact that little
potential exists for concrete cooling for large structures in the
United States, many underdeveloped countries have prime
locations for large dams.
George C. Briley, P.E., is president of Technicold Services,
San Antonio.

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March 2004