| Abstract: | Current seismic safety evaluation for earth dams relies on approximate methods of analysis for prediction of non-linear, transient, dynamic response. One of these approximate methods uses a Strain Reduction Factor (SRF), and has been widely applied in a variety of one-dimensional and two-dimensional soil structural analyses. A second method considered, Equivalent Temporal Damping (ETD), has been previously applied to several seismic dynamic analyses of earth dams. The relative accuracy of the two methods is assessed by comparing them with incremental plasticity, nearly exact numerical solutions. For a simple shear element subjected to deterministic and non-stationary random input accelerations, a serious overprediction of the maximum peak shear response occurs by the SRF method, whereas the ETD results agree very closely with the incremental plasticity solutions. The SRF and ETD methods are also applied to seismic dynamic response analysis of a Vertical Soil Column system, and the same trends as established in the previous case are observed. It is concluded that, in lieu of combined incremental plasticity and finite difference or finite element numerical solutions, the ETD approach is the more accurate of the methods tested for seismic dynamic response analysis of earth dams. |
