Modeling an environment-friendly and antiearthquake dam by probabilistic-FEM approach

Abstract

A novel generation of gravity dams, known as cemented material dam (CMD), allows construction of dam body on almost every rock foundation even on very low modulus and weak rocks. Because of its rock weakness and antiearthquake features, more considerations are required for its design. Therefore, a probabilistic model code based on coupled Monte-Carlo and Fuzzy simulation is presented to put together regulations, rules and explanations necessary for serviceability assessment of CMD. The proposed code is contained of the sensitivities of tensile stress, compressive stress and sliding. Then, finite element method (FEM) is utilized to verify the overall strength security and stability for a case study. The results indicated that for the optimal cross-section, the upstream as same as downstream dam slopes are 1:0.45 to 1:0.80. In addition, the vertical and horizontal displacement contours increase from bottom to top of the dam. The maximum values of horizontal and vertical displacements are within the permissible limit of 1–2% dam height. The results also demonstrated that elastoplastic constitutive model is more suitable to safely predict the behavior of CMD than other models in statistical and dynamical conditions.