The effect of the gravity on the earthquake performance of roller compacted concrete dams

Abstract

Roller compacted concrete (RCC) is a dry concrete mixture often utilized in the construction of large dams. The interlayer of the RCC dam, which is the weakest plane of the structure, can easily fail under hydraulic shear load, geological impact, earthquake force and environmental impact. In this study linear and performance analyzes were carried out for eight different scenarios for foundation effect, gravity effect and empty and full reservoir situations. In analyses, the earthquake response and performance of the Akçakoca RCC Dam, taking into account the interaction between the dam and the water. The reservoir water behavior is simulated using the Eulerian-Lagrangian coupled (CEL) approach with finite elements modeling. Linear analyses reveal that hydrodynamic pressure leads to increased displacements and principal stresses. The earthquake performance evaluation of the Akçakoca RCC dam indicates that critical concrete damages are expected based on linear time-history analyses conducted for both empty and full reservoir scenarios. Besides, according to this study, gravity effect clearly increases the earthquake performance of the dam.