Severe local displacements and the resulting high stress in the inverts of hydraulic structures are often caused by the displacement of underlying layers with joints and cracks or the presence of swelling soils behind them. In addition to the above factors, the interaction pressure resulting from hydrostatic and hydrodynamic pressure caused by water flow on the slab can also cause such stresses, examples of which can be seen in the spillways of important dams in the world in recent years. The spillway failures of Bukan Dam (the most important dam in the northwest of the country) in 2019 and Orville Dam (the tallest dam in the United States) in 2016 are among them. Several effective factors, including the rock mass index, foundation stress conditions, type and performance of support systems, the condition of geological formations, the method of foundation drainage and groundwater level, and the flow regime, are effective in the design of the support system of this type of slabs. In this study, after introducing the factors affecting the generation of local displacements and cracks in the inverts of hydraulic structures, various methods of energy absorption using ductile support elements and preventing the formation of cracks in the slab have been introduced. Finally, the proposed mechanism of ductile restraint is introduced and their effectiveness in comparison with conventional elastic restraints in inverts under uniform wide-area compression load has been studied using a constructed laboratory setup. The results of the experiments show that the energy absorption rate in ductile restraints is 4 times that of conventional elastic restraints and the use of ductile supports can prevent cracking of inverts exposed to flow, including spillway chutes and stilling ponds.