Seismic Performance Evaluation of Concrete Gravity Dams Using an Efficient Finite Element Model

Abstract

The effective numerical model that examines the seismic behavior of concrete gravity dams in the Laplace domain-Finite Element (FE) approach is presented. Further research on seismic performance of the dam body is done considering the simultaneous effect of horizontal (H) and vertical (V) components of six different earthquake loads. The time durations of the selected earthquakes vary from 10 to 80 s with the magnitude range from 6.5 to 7.62 Mw. The Lagrangian fluid finite elements are utilized to model the near-field water domain, while the fluid infinite elements are utilized to model the far-field water domain. The two-dimensional (2D) FE model is developed in FORTRAN 90 and MATLAB programming languages. The obtained results revealed that the longer length of significant earthquake duration leads to the high deformations, high stress excursions and high probability of damages in the dam body. 20.9% and 18.8% of the selected dam cross section experienced overstress condition under the H and H + V components of the Chi-Chi earthquake loads, respectively; this indicate the severe damages and even the dam failure. This study concludes that the seismic behavior of concrete gravity dam affects not only with the seismic severity; the length and significant time duration of the earthquake are also important factors should be considered in the seismic analysis and design of dams.