Earthquake Analysis of Arch Dams: Factors to Be Considered
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 2
Abstract
The factors that significantly influence the three-dimensional analysis of arch dams are identified: the semiunbounded size of the reservoir and foundation-rock domains, dam-water interaction, wave absorption at the reservoir boundary, water compressibility, dam–foundation rock interaction, and spatial variations in ground motion at the dam-rock interface. Through a series of example analyses of actual dams, it is demonstrated that (1) by neglecting water compressibility, the stresses may be significantly underestimated for some dams or overestimated for others; (2) by neglecting foundation-rock mass and damping, the stresses may be overestimated by a factor of 2 to 3; and (3) spatial variations in ground motion, typically ignored in dam engineering practice, can have profound influence on the earthquake-induced stresses in the dam. This influence obviously depends on the degree to which ground motion varies spatially along the dam-rock interface. For the same dam, this influence would differ from one earthquake to the next, depending on the location and depth of the causative fault relative to the dam site. How to select damping values for the dam concrete and foundation rock is also addressed.
Formats available
You can view the full content in the following formats:
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Jean Proulx and Georges Darbre for providing the data and recorded motions from Mauvoisin Dam, to S. W. Alves for advising on interpolating spatially varying ground motions at the dam-rock interface from recorded motions at a few locations, and to Larry K. Nuss for providing Figs. 1–6.
References
Alves, S. W. (2004). “Nonlinear analysis of Pacoima Dam with spatially-uniform ground motion.” Rep. No. EERL 2004-11, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
Alves, S. W., and Hall, J. F. (2006). “System identification of a concrete arch dam and the calibration of its finite element model.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 35(11), 1321–1337.
Basu, U., and Chopra, A. K. (2004). “Perfectly matched layers for transient elastodynamics of unbounded domains.” Int. J. Num. Methods Eng., 59(8), 1039–1074.
Chopra, A. K. (2007). Dynamics of structures: Theory and applications to earthquake engineering, 3rd Ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Chopra, A. K., and Wang, J.-T. (2008). “Analysis and response of concrete arch dams including dam-water-foundation rock interaction to spatially-varying ground motions.” UCB/EERC-2008-03, Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC), Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
Chopra, A. K., and Wang, J. T. (2010). “Earthquake response of arch dams to spatially varying ground motion.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 39(8), 887–906.
Darbre, G. R., De Smet, C. A. M., and Kraemer, C. (2000). “Natural frequencies measured from ambient vibration response of the arch dam of Mauvoisin.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 29(5), 577–586.
Mojtahedi, S., and Fenves, G. (2000). “Effect of contraction joint opening on Pacoima Dam in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.” Data Utilization Rep. CSMIP/00-05 (OSMS 00-07), California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP), Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
Proulx, J., et al. (2004). “Analytical and experimental investigation of damping on arch dams based on recorded earthquakes.” Paper No. 68. Proc., 13th World Conf. on Earthquake Engineering, International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE), Tokyo.
Scott, G., et al. (2008). “Current methodology for nonlinear analysis of arch dams using explicit finite element techniques.” Proc., 13th World Conf. on Earthquake Engineering, International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE), Tokyo.
Tan, H., and Chopra, A. K. (1995a). “Dam-foundation rock interaction effects in frequency-response function of arch dams.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 24(11), 1475–1490.
Tan, H., and Chopra, A. K. (1995b). “Earthquake analysis of arch dams including dam-water foundation rock interaction.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 24(11), 1453–1474.
Tan, H., and Chopra, A. K. (1996a). “Dam-foundation rock interaction effects in earthquake response of arch dams.” J. Struct. Eng., 122(5), 528–538.
Tan, H., and Chopra, A. K. (1996b). “EACD-3D-96: A computer program for three-dimensional earthquake analysis of concrete dams.” Rep. No. UCB/SEMM-96/06, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). (1998a). “Linear elastic analysis addressing structural issues for the modification decision analysis for Deadwood Dam.” Technical Memorandum DEA-D8110-MDA-TM-98-1, USBR, Denver, CO.
United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). (1998b). “Linear elastic dynamic structural analysis including mass in the foundation for Hoover Dam.” Technical Memorandum HVD-MDA-D8110-97-2, USBR, Denver, CO.
United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). (1999). Linear elastic static and dynamic structural analysis of Monticello Dam, USBR, Denver, CO.
United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). (2002). Static and dynamic linear elastic structural analysis (EACD3D96), Morrow Point Dam, USBR, Denver, CO.
Wang, J. T., and Chopra, A. K. (2008). “EACD-3D-2008: A computer program for three-dimensional earthquake analysis of concrete dams considering spatial-varying ground motion.” UCB/EERC-2008-04, Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC), Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
Wang, J. T., and Chopra, A. K. (2010). “Linear analysis of concrete arch dams including dam-water-foundation rock interaction considering spatially varying ground motions.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 39(7), 731–750.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 138 • Issue 2 • February 2012
Pages: 205 - 214
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 23, 2010
Accepted: Apr 22, 2011
Published online: Jan 17, 2012
Published in print: Feb 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.