Empirical Formula for Calculating Maximum Acceleration of Concrete-Faced Rockfill Dam

Abstract

On the condition of different dam heights and different shapes of river valley, 3-D dynamical responses of concrete-faced rockfill dams subjected to different seismic intensity input are analyzed based on equivalent-linear model in this paper. The results show that on the condition of the same dam height and the base acceleration excitations unchanged, the position of the maximum acceleration on the axis of the top moves from the middle to the riversides symmetrically with the increase of the river valley width. For the narrow river valley, the position of the maximum acceleration which occurs near the riversides to the wide valley is on the middle of the axis at the top. The result negates the application of 2-D dynamical computation for wide valleys, and shows that for the seismic response of high concrete-faced rockfill dams, the seismic amplification factor along the axis should be given, except for that along the dam heights. Statistical analysis is also made to the seismic coefficient, and an empirical equation for calculating the maximum acceleration of the dam is provided, which provide an reference for the seismic stability analysis of rockfill dams using pseudo-static method.