Seismic Design and Safety Evaluation Analysis of Reinforced Slope with Geogrid in 200m High Core Rock-Fill Dams

Abstract

The reinforcement technique with strengthening geogrid has been widely used in modern seismic design of 200m high rock-fill dams. However, how to evaluate accurately the effects of reinforcement in seismic design and safety evaluation has become a key problem. As compared with the minimum safety factors which are conventionally employed as the evaluation criteria, the earthquake-induced deformation can better reflect the characteristics of rock-fill materials, input motion and the performance of reinforced dams for the earthquake loading. In the improved Newmark sliding method, the effects of reinforcement in enhancing the stability of slope in high rock-fill dams and restricting the permanent deformation of dams are investigated. Firstly, the limit tensile intensity and limit coordinating strain of reinforcement is determined based on the stress-strain relationship of reinforcement-composite and rock-fill materials. Secondly, the location of critical failure face is determined via a combination of ant colony algorithm and Holland method. The yielding acceleration of potential sliding bodies, which considers the limited stress of reinforcement layers and time-history vertical acceleration, is obtained. Finally, the transient movements are accumulated for all the overloadings. It is guaranteed that the reinforcement can reduce the permanent deformation up to 80% and improve the seismic design and safety evaluation of high rock-fill dams subjected to strong ground motion effectively.