Seismic safety analysis of tall concrete dams,investigation and insights on critical challenges

This paper discusses critical and potentially controversial issues related to the seismic safety of tall concrete dams. These include the seismic input at a dam site, the effective treatment of the damage-rupture process, and the consideration of compressibility of reservoir water for hydrodynamic pressure. Major challenges to currently popular but questionable treatments of these critical problems are presented. Insights and additional research on these critical challenges are emphasized and explained based on prior published works of the author. More reasonable alternatives to dealing with these potentially controversial problems are provided in light of engineering practice in China. First, the design seismic input at depth as deconvoluted from an arbitrarily selected recorded accelerogram at a control point of an artificially developed free-field surface with the elevation of the dam crest is difficult for engineering projects to accept as appropriate. It may be more reasonable to use the design seismic incident motions as half of the ground surface motions from seismic safety analyses obtained from deterministic or probability approaches conducted by seismologists according to approved standards or guidelines. Second, since seismic damage to the dam must be estimated separately following uniaxial tensile and compressive experimental damage evolution rules, a simplified and realistic nonlinear elastic model is proposed as an alternative to the plastic-damage coupling model, which is very complex and includes assumptions based on a number of uncertainties. Finally, the effect of the reflection coefficient for compressibility of reservoir water on hydrodynamic pressures is very sensitive. The notion that the applied unified reflection coefficient at the reservoir bottom could be frequency-dependent and exhibit a significant variability in space as confirmed by field tests is questionable. To neglect the compressibility of reservoir water it may be closer to engineering practice at present.     

随机有限断层法合成地震动的研究与应用

目前很多研究者采用随机有限断层模型预测地震动并被证明是可行的.本文运用随机有限断层地震动叠加合成方法,模拟了1988年肃南5.7级地震,与实际记录进行对比分析,发现：用有限断层方法模拟得到的峰值加速度以及峰值加速度出现所对应的特征时刻与真实记录较为吻合;比较模拟的地震动反应谱和实际记录的加速度反应谱,总体上在工程感兴趣的频段内,有限断层方法拟合的结果基本能满足实际工作的需要.为进一步开拓该方法在工程应用中的前景,以兰州市柴家峡水电站为例,将此理论方法应用于缺乏强震记录地区的近场地震动估计中,模拟分析了马衔山北缘活动断裂发震时在坝址区产生的地震动特征,其近场合成结果与1125年兰州7.0级地震的烈度分布符合较好,可供工程抗震设计参考使用.     

冲击荷载作用下混凝土破坏强度的确定及CT验证

从细观结构出发,把混凝土看作由骨料、界面和砂浆组成的非均质复合材料,建立随机骨料模型,应用损伤塑性本构,对试件进行了冲击荷载作用下的数值模拟,通过施加不同的加载方式,研究材料的损伤破坏过程,最终以位移加载得出荷载-位移曲线的峰值强度作为细观混凝土试样的破坏强度.通过对混凝土进行冲击荷载作用下的实时CT扫描,得出试件的荷载位移曲线及各个应力阶段的CT图像,发现数值模拟所得混凝土强度及破坏过程与CT观测到的结果有较好的相似性.结果表明,利用该方法研究混凝土在冲击荷载作用下的损伤破坏过程是合适的,以荷载-位移曲线的峰值点作为混凝土破坏强度点是合理的.