Seismic behaviour of cracked concrete gravity dams

A finite element model of incremental displacement constraint equations (IDCE), based on an existing node‐to‐surface concept, is implemented to deal with dynamic contact surfaces in the seismic behaviour analysis of cracked concrete gravity dams. After verification for sliding, rocking and impact, the IDCE model is applied to study the seismic responses of concrete gravity dams with different profiles and crack locations for a variety of parameters, such as coefficient of friction, water level and type of earthquake, as well as impact damping based on the concept of coefficient of restitution. It is revealed that cracked concrete gravity dams can experience not only sliding and rocking modes, but also the drifting mode in some cases of crack either at the base or at a height. Downstream sliding is normally accompanied by rocking, especially for the cases of crack at a height. Due to rocking and drifting, a cracked dam may still acquire a certain amount of residual sliding even if the effective coefficient of friction is relatively high. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonlinear dynamic response of concrete gravity dams: cavitation effect

A finite element method for the dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dams is presented. Displacement based formulation is used for both fluid and structural domains. During severe ground motion, the impounding fluid in the reservoir may separate from the dam and cause forming of micro bubbles. As a result, the compressibility of water is reduced. This nonlinear phenomenon of the reservoir is termed cavitation. When the direction of the ground motion is changed, the micro bubble's region of fluid collapses, and an impact will occur. By using different damping ratios in the fluid and solid domains the spurious oscillations which were caused by the impact are removed. The cavitation is confined to the upper part of the reservoir, where it has an effect of paramount importance on the tensile stresses. To illustrate the cavitation effect, the response of the non-overflow monolith of the Pine Flat dam subjected to the first 6.5 s of the May 1940 El-Centro, California earthquake, is considered. In order that the cavitation phenomenon take place more widely, maximum acceleration was scaled to give an amplitude of 1 g.     

Seismic stability of earth-rock dams using finite element limit analysis

In this study, a finite element limit analysis method is developed to assess the seismic stability of earth-rock dams. A pseudo-static approach is employed within the limit analysis framework to determine the lower and upper bounds on the critical seismic coefficients of dams. The interlocking force in the soil is considered, and the rockfill material is assumed to follow the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion and an associated flow rule. Based on the native form of the failure criterion, the lower and upper bound theorems are formulated as second-order cone programming problems. The nonlinear shear strength properties of rockfill materials are also considered. The developed finite element limit analysis is applied to two different types of earth-rock dams. The results indicate that the rigorous lower and upper bounds are very close even for rockfill materials with large internal friction angles. The failure surfaces are easily predicted using the contour of the yield function and the displacement field obtained by the limit analysis method. In addition, the pore water pressures are modelled as external forces in the limit analysis to assess the seismic stability of earth-rock dams in the reservoir filling stage.     

Seismic stability of concrete gravity dams

Linear finite element analyses are commonly used to simulate the behaviour of gravity dam—foundation systems. However, the foundation is generally unable to develop any significant tensile stresses. Therefore any tension occurring in the vicinity of the dam—foundation interface is largely fictitious. Moreover, the traditional overturning and sliding stability criteria have little meaning in the context of the oscillatory response of dams during earthquakes. In this study, time domain analyses using non-linear contact elements located at the dam—foundation interface have been used to determine the dynamic sliding and uplifting response of gravity dam monoliths considering various elastic foundation properties. The magnitudes of the relative interface displacements, of the percentage of base not in contact (PBNC) and of the compressive stresses at the heel or toe of the dam have been used to monitor the seismic stability. The numerical results have shown that the non-linear behaviour of the dam—foundation interface reduces the seismic response of the system, indicating the possibility of more rational and economical designs. The PBNC was identified as the critical seismic stability response parameter for all analyses except for very flexible foundation conditions where the maximum values of relative interface displacements need to be considered.     

Seismic fragility assessment of concrete gravity dams

Many concrete gravity dams have been in service for over 50 years, and over this period important advances in the methodologies for evaluation of natural phenomena hazards have caused the design‐basis events for these dams to be revised upwards. Older existing dams may fail to meet revised safety criteria and structural rehabilitation to meet such criteria may be costly and difficult. Fragility assessment provides a tool for rational safety evaluation of existing facilities and decision‐making by using a probabilistic framework to model sources of uncertainty that may impact dam performance. This paper presents a methodology for developing fragilities of concrete gravity dams to assess their performance against seismic hazards. The methodology is illustrated using the Bluestone Dam on the New River in West Virginia, which was designed in the late 1930s. The seismic fragility assessment indicated that sliding along the dam–foundation interface is likely if the dam were to be subjected to an earthquake with a magnitude of the maximum credible earthquake (MCE) specified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Moreover, there will likely be tensile cracking at the neck of the dam at this level of seismic excitation. However, loss of control of the reservoir is unlikely. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic assessment of concrete gravity dams using capacity estimation and damage indexes

A new concept to determine state of the damage in concrete gravity dams is introduced. The Pine Flat concrete gravity dam has been selected for the purpose of the analysis and its structural capacity, assuming no sliding plane and rigid foundation, has been estimated using the two well‐known methods: nonlinear static pushover (SPO) and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). With the use of these two methods, performance and various limit states of the dam have been determined, and three damage indexes have been proposed on the basis of the comparison of seismic demands and the dam's capacity. It is concluded that the SPO and IDA can be effectively used to develop indexes for seismic performance evaluation and damage assessment of concrete gravity dams. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transient analysis of concrete gravity dam-reservoir systems by Wavenumber-TD approach

The Wavenumber approach was initially introduced as an ideal substitute for the rigorous type of analysis which had been the basis of extensive studies in seismic analysis of concrete gravity dams. The former technique is formulated in the context of pure finite element programming, while the latter relies heavily on a two-dimensional semi-infinite fluid element (i.e., hyper-element). Recently, a variation of Wavenumber method was proposed which was referred to as Wavenumber-TD approach. The approximation to the original technique improves its realm of application and allows it to be carried out in time domain as well as frequency domain. In that study, the formulation was examined for harmonic type of excitation which proved to be promising. Herein, this will be evaluated for its real intended application, which is transient analysis of dam-reservoir systems. For this aim, the prepared special purpose finite element program is modified and the analysis of Pine Flat dam is considered as a typical example. Several models are considered with different values of normalized reservoir length. In each case, the reservoir truncation surface is treated by Wavenumber-TD and the extensively utilized Sommerfeld conditions. The dynamic loading considered is the S69E component of Taft earthquake record. Furthermore, two types of reservoir bottom condition of full reflective as well as absorptive, are adopted. Overall, this will allow for a thorough examination and evaluation of Wavenumber-TD approach in regard to its effectiveness.     

Effects of near-fault and far-fault ground motions on nonlinear dynamic response and seismic damage of concrete gravity dams

As the forward directivity and fling effect characteristics of the near-fault ground motions, seismic response of structures in the near field of a rupturing fault can be significantly different from those observed in the far field. The unique characteristics of the near-fault ground motions can cause considerable damage during an earthquake. This paper presents results of a study aimed at evaluating the near-fault and far-fault ground motion effects on nonlinear dynamic response and seismic damage of concrete gravity dams including dam-reservoir-foundation interaction. For this purpose, 10 as-recorded earthquake records which display ground motions with an apparent velocity pulse are selected to represent the near-fault ground motion characteristics. The earthquake ground motions recorded at the same site from other events that the epicenter far away from the site are employed as the far-fault ground motions. The Koyna gravity dam, which is selected as a numerical application, is subjected to a set of as-recorded near-fault and far-fault strong ground motion records. The Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) model including the strain hardening or softening behavior is employed in nonlinear analysis. Nonlinear dynamic response and seismic damage analyses of the selected concrete dam subjected to both near-fault and far-fault ground motions are performed. Both local and global damage indices are established as the response parameters. The results obtained from the analyses of the dam subjected to each fault effect are compared with each other. It is seen from the analysis results that the near-fault ground motions, which have significant influence on the dynamic response of dam–reservoir–foundation systems, have the potential to cause more severe damage to the dam body than far-fault ground motions.     

Seismic performance sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of gravity dams

Uncertainties in structural engineering are often arising from the modeling assumptions and errors, or from variability in input loadings. A practical approach for dealing with them is to perform sensitivity and uncertainty analysis in the framework of stochastic and probabilistic methods. These analyses can be statically and dynamically performed through nonlinear static pushover and IDA techniques, respectively. Of the existing structures, concrete gravity dams are infrastructures which may encounter many uncertainties. In this research, probabilistic analysis of the seismic performance of gravity dams is presented. The main characteristics of the nonlinear tensile behavior of mass concrete, along with the intensity of earthquake excitations are considered as random variables in the probabilistic analysis. Using the tallest non‐overflow monolith of the Pine Flat gravity dam as a case study, its response under static and dynamic situations is reliably examined utilizing different combinations of parameters in the material and the seismic loading. The sensitivity analysis reveals the relative importance of each parameter independently. It will be shown that the undamaged modulus of elasticity and tensile strength of mass concrete have more significant roles on the seismic resistance of the dam than the ultimate inelastic tensile strain. In order to propagate the parametric uncertainty to the actual seismic performance of the dam, probabilistic simulation methods such as Monte Carlo simulation with Latin hypercube sampling, and approximate moment estimation techniques will be used. The final results illustrate the possibility of using a mean‐parameter dam model to estimate the mean seismic performance of the dam. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A unified approach for long-term behavior and seismic response of AAR-affected concrete dams

Concrete dams suffering from alkali-aggregate reaction (AAR) exhibit swelling and deterioration of concrete or even cracking over a long period. The deterioration of concrete may significantly affect the dynamic behavior of the structures, and it is necessary to estimate seismic safety of the deteriorated dams subjected to strong earthquakes. A unified approach is presented in this paper for long-term behavior and seismic response analysis of AAR-affected concrete dams by combining AAR kinetics, effects of creep and plastic-damage model in the finite element method. The proposed method is applied to a gravity dam and an arch dam. The long-term behavior of the AAR-affected dams is first predicted in terms of anisotropic swelling, spatially non-uniform deterioration of concrete, and cracking initiation and propagation with the development of AAR. The seismic response of the deteriorated dams is subsequently analyzed based on the state of the structures at the end of the long-term analysis. The AAR-induced expansion displacements obtained from the proposed method are in good agreement with the measured ones in the long-term operation. The simulated cracking patterns in the dams caused by the continuing AAR are also similar to the field observation. The results from the seismic analysis show that AAR-induced deterioration of concrete and cracking may lead to more severe damage cracking in the dams during earthquake. The dynamic displacements are also increased compared with the dams that are not suffering from AAR. The seismic safety of the AAR-affected concrete dams is significantly reduced because of the AAR-induced deterioration of concrete and cracking.     

Seismic stability analysis of gravity retaining walls

A new approach based on the category of upper bound theorem of limit analysis is presented in this study to consider the seismic stability of gravity retaining walls. The retaining wall and the backfill soil were taken as a whole system. For a translational failure mechanism assumed, formulas are provided to calculate directly the yield acceleration and the inclination of the failure surface. An example is shown to illustrate the method. Comparisons are made with limit equilibrium method, and the results are found consistent. Based on a limited parametric study, it is shown that the wall roughness has remarkable influence on the yield acceleration.     

Pseudo‐dynamic testing of a concrete gravity dam

Inspired from the simplified single degree of freedom modeling approach used in the preliminary design of concrete gravity dams, a pseudo‐dynamic testing method was devised for the seismic testing of a concrete gravity dam section. The test specimen was a 1/75 scaled section of the 120‐m‐high monolith of the Melen Dam, one of the highest concrete gravity dams to be built in Turkey. The single degree of freedom idealization of the dam section was validated in the first stage of the study using numerical simulations including the dam–reservoir interaction. Afterwards, pseudo‐dynamic testing was conducted on the specimen using three ground motions corresponding to different hazard levels. Lateral displacement and base shear demands were measured. The crack propagation at the base of the dam was monitored with the measurement of the crack widths and the base sliding displacements. After the pseudo‐dynamic loading, a static pushover test was conducted to determine the reserve capacity of the test specimen. Despite major cracking at the base of the monolith, neither significant sliding nor a stability problem that might jeopardize the stability of the dam was observed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic fracture analysis of concrete gravity dams

A numerical procedure for evaluation of the fracture process of gravity dams during strong earthquakes is presented. The BEM is used to discretize the dam reservoir system including the crack surfaces, and stress intensity factors at the crack tip are employed in a stage by stage procedure which simulates the crack extension. For each stage of constant crack length the mode superposition technique is applied; this is made possible by simulating the impact process of crack closing by a load pulse applied at the contact points which permits the structural stiffness to be assumed unchanged. To verify the proposed procedure, a cantilever beam model structure made of gypsum was tested on a shaking table. Good correlation with the numerical results was obtained, from which it is concluded that the procedure can be employed for evaluation of the crack propagation process in concrete structures subjected to dynamic loadings.     

Sliding response of gravity dams including vertical seismic accelerations

Seismic safety assessment of gravity dams has become a major concern in many regions of the world while the effects of vertical seismic accelerations on the response of structures remain poorly understood. This paper first investigates the effect of including vertical accelerations in the sliding response analysis of gravity dams subjected to a range of historical ground motion records separated in two groups according to their source-to-site distance. Analyses showed that the incidence of vertical accelerations on the sliding response of gravity dams is significantly higher for near-source records than for farsource records. The pseudo-static 30% load combination rule, commonly used in practice to account for the non-simultaneous occurrence of the peak horizontal and vertical accelerations, yielded good approximations of the minimum safety factors against sliding computed from time-history analyses. A method for empirically estimating the vertical response spectra based on horizontal spectra, accounting for the difference in frequency content and amplitudes between the two components is investigated. Results from analyses using spectrum compatible horizontal and vertical synthetic records also approximated well the sliding response of a gravity dam subjected to series of simultaneous horizontal and vertical historical earthquake records.     

Incremental dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dams including base and lift joints

The growth in computer processing power has made it possible to use time-consuming analysis methods such as incremental dynamic analysis(IDA) with higher accuracy in less time.In an IDA study,a series of earthquake records are applied to a structure at successively increasing intensity levels,which causes the structure to shift from the elastic state into the inelastic state and finally into collapse.In this way,the limit-states and capacity of a structure can be determined.In the present research,the IDA of a concrete gravity dam considering a nonlinear concrete behavior,and sliding planes within the dam body and at the dam-foundation interface,is performed.The influence of the friction angle and lift joint slope on the response parameters are investigated and the various limit-states of the dam are recognized.It is observed that by introducing a lift joint,the tensile damage can be avoided for the dam structure.The lift joint sliding is essentially independent of the base joint friction angle and the upper ligament over the inclined lift joint slides into the upstream direction in strong earthquakes.     

Correlation between strong motion durations and damage measures of concrete gravity dams

Strong motion duration affects the cumulative damage of structures significantly. There are more than 30 different definitions of strong motion duration. This study describes numerically, the interdependency between several different definitions of strong motion duration and structural accumulated damage indices, and the aim is to determine the definitions of strong motion duration that exhibit the strongest influence on structural damages. For this purpose, 20 as-recorded accelerograms with a wide range of durations, which are modified to match a 5% damped target spectrum, are considered in this study, and several different definitions of strong motion duration, such as significant duration, bracketed duration and uniform duration are proposed for measuring these durations. On the other hand, nonlinear seismic analyses of concrete gravity dams subjected to earthquake motions with different strong motion durations are conducted according to the Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) model including the strain hardening or softening behavior. Peak displacement, local damage index, global damage index and damage energy dissipation are established for characterizing the influence of strong motion duration on the dynamic response of concrete gravity dams. The degree of the interrelationship between strong motion durations and damage measures is provided by correlation coefficients. Comparison of the correlation between the different durations of the ground motion and different damage measures reveals that strong motion durations calculated from different definitions have no significant influence on damage measure based on the peak displacement response of the dam, but are positively correlated to the accumulated damage measures such as the local damage index, global damage index and damage energy dissipation for events with similar response spectrum.     

Effective ambient vibration testing for validating numerical models of concrete dams

Ambient vibration tests were conducted on a 56 metre high concrete gravity dam to measure its modal properties for validating a finite element model of the dam–reservoir–foundation system. Excitation was provided by wind, by reservoir water cascading down the spillweir, and by the force of water released through outlet-pipes. Vibrations of the dam were measured using accelerometers, and 3-hour data records were acquired from each location. Data were processed by testing for stationarity and rejecting non-stationary portions before Fourier analysis. Power spectra with low variance were generated from which natural frequencies of the dam were identified clearly and modal damping factors estimated. Modal analysis of the frequency response spectra yielded mode shapes for the six lowest lateral modes of vibration of the dam. The finite element model for the dam was analysed using EACD-3D, and the computed mode shapes and natural frequencies compared well with the measured results. The study demonstrates that ambient vibration testing can offer a viable alternative to forced vibration testing when only the modal properties of a dam are required. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

土石坝地震稳定性分析评述

对土石坝地震稳定性分析中几个重要问题，土料本构模型、地震反应分析和永久变形分析作了简要评述和初步分析，并指出其中存在的若干问题。另外，对土石坝地震稳定性分析现状、各类分析方法及其适用条件做了评述。     

Effect of reservoir bottom on earthquake response of concrete dams

The absorption of hydrodynamic pressure waves at the reservoir bottom has dominant effects on the structural response of the dam when subjected to ground motion. In the present study, a model is proposed for the absorption effects of the reservoir bottom in the earthquake analysis of dams. The model utilizes the wave reflection coefficient approach and is based on the solution of the wave equation in a sediment layer of viscoelastic material with a constant thickness overlying an elastic, semi-infinite foundation. Numerical studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of the sediment layer thickness and material properties as well as the effect of reflection of waves from the underlying rock. It is shown that the current approach of assuming the wave reflection coefficient at the reservoir bottom based on the characteristics of the sediment material and excluding the effect of the reflected waves from the underlying rock, may significantly underestimate the seismic response of the dam.     

Earthquake safety assessment of concrete arch and gravity dams

Based on research studies currently being carried out at Dalian University of Technology, some important aspects for the earthquake safety assessment of concrete dams are reviewed and discussed. First, the rate-dependent behavior of concrete subjected to earthquake loading is examined, emphasizing the properties of concrete under cyclic and biaxial loading conditions. Second, a modified four-parameter Hsieh-Ting-Chen viscoplastic consistency model is developed to simulate the rate-dependent behavior of concrete. The earthquake response of a 278m high arch dam is analyzed, and the results show that the strain-rate effects become noticeable in the inelastic range. Third, a more accurate non-smooth Newton algorithm for the solution of three-dimensional frictional contact problems is developed to study the joint opening effects of arch dams during strong earthquakes. Such effects on two nearly 300m high arch dams have been studied. It was found that the canyon shape has great influence on the magnitude and distribution of the joint opening along the dam axis. Fourth, the scaled boundary finite element method presented by Song and Wolf is employed to study the dam-reservoir-foundation interaction effects of concrete dams. Particular emphases were placed on the variation of foundation stiffness and the anisotropic behavior of the foundation material on the dynamic response of concrete dams. Finally, nonlinear modeling of concrete to study the damage evolution of concrete dams during strong earthquakes is discussed. An elastic-damage mechanics approach for damage prediction of concrete gravity dams is described as an example. These findings are helpful in understanding the dynamic behavior of concrete dams and promoting the improvement of seismic safety assessment methods.