THE EFFECTS OF NONLINEAR DAM-FOUNDATION INTERACTION ON THE SEISMIC RESPONSE OF EARTH DAMS

Loizos Pelecanos, Stavroula Kontoe, Lidija Zdravkovic

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

The nonlinear interaction between an earth dam founded on a compliant soil layer and this “foundation layer” is investigated by analysing a well-documented dam case history. The aim of this study is to (a) examine the effect of a compliant soil foundation layer on the dynamic response of an earth dam and (b) investigate how the presence of a large earth dam affects the dynamic response characteristics of the foundation soil layer. A nonlinear static and dynamic finite element model is used to analyse the behaviour of the dam under different input acceleration records and under two different scenarios: (a) the dam being built on a soft foundation soil layer and (b) built on perfectly rigid rock. It is found that the presence of the dam significantly affects both the amplification and frequency content of the underlying soil layer accelerations. It is also shown that the foundation soil layer needs to be explicitly taken into account when performing a seismic analysis of large earth dams, because it may considerably amplify the seismic motion at the base of the dam.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2018
Event16th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering - Thessaloniki, Greece
Duration: 18 Jun 2018 → …
http://www.16ecee.org/

Conference

Conference16th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityThessaloniki
Period18/06/18 → …
Internet address

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