Seismic Risk Analysis of Concrete Gravity Dams under Near-Fault Ground Motions

Abstract

There are a large number of concrete dams worldwide. Some of the dams are in areas prone to seismicity and were built many years ago with minimal consideration to seismic loads. Dam safety during and after an earthquake, is the aim of the present study. The failure of a dam during an earthquake will be catastrophic in terms of human life and financial losses. In the present work, an analytical fragility analysis was performed in order to characterize the seismic vulnerability of concrete gravity dams by using a probabilistic method to model sources of uncertainty that could impact dam performance. The assessment of the seismic vulnerability of concrete gravity dams under near-fault ground motions was performed to assess their performance against seismic hazards. A case study was considered, it is about the dam of Oued el Fodda on the Oued Chelif River, West Algeria. This dam was designed in the early 1930s.