Wave passage and incoherency effects on seismic response of high arch dams

The effects of incoherency and wave-passage on the nonlinear responses of concrete arch dams are investigated in this study. A double curvature arch dam is selected as a numerical example. The reservoir is modeled as a compressible material and the foundation is modeled as a massless medium. Ground motion time-histories are artificially generated using the Monte Carlo simulation approach. Four different finite element models (FEM) are considered: uniform excitation; incoherence effect; wave passage effect; and both incoherence and wave passage effects. It was revealed that modeling multiple-supports excitation could have a significant impact on the structural response of the dam by inducing a pseudo-static effect. Also, it was concluded that the coherency effect overshadows the wave passage effect and the results obtained from non-uniform excitation of FEM, including the wave passage effect, is close to the results of the FEM when it is uniformly excited.