The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Earthquake analysis and response of concrete arch dams

Fok, Ka-lun; Chopra, Anil K.

UCB/EERC-85/07, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1985-07, 207 pages (540/F64/1985)

An earlier analytical procedure for computing the response of arch dams to harmonic ground motion, including dam-water interaction and reservoir boundary absorption effects, is extended to consider the flexibility of the foundation rock and to include Fourier synthesis of harmonic responses to obtain earthquake responses. The computational efficiency of the extended analytical procedure is improved through the use of more efficient analytical formulations and computational procedures for evaluating the hydrodynamic terms and through the development of procedures for interpolating the frequency response functions. The resulting analytical procedure and computer program are used to compute the response of a selected arch dam to harmonic and earthquake ground motion and to investigate a wide range of the important parameters characterizing the properties of the dam, foundation rock, impounded water, and reservoir boundary materials. Based on results, several general conclusions are presented.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-85-07.pdf (14 MB)