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When fracture occurs in a concrete dam, the crack mouth is typicallyexposed to water. Very often this phenomenon occurs at the dam-foundation jointand is driven also by the fluid pressure inside the crack. Since the joint is the weakestpoint in the structure, this evolutionary process determines the load bearing capacityof the dam. In this paper the cracked joint is analysed through the cohesive modelproposed by Cervenka, Kishen and Saouma which takes into account the coupleddegradation of normal and tangential strength. A judicious choice of the mechanicalparameters required by the above mentioned model allows us to determine a stressand displacement field at the crack tip that is admissible according to the ICOLDbenchmark from both a static and a kinematic point of view.