The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Investigation of the response of Puddingstone and Cogswell dams in the Whittier Narrows earthquake of October 1, 1987. Volume 1: Puddingstone Dam

Bray, Jonathan D.; Seed, Raymond B.; Boulanger, Ross W.

UCB/GT-90-01, University of California, Berkeley, Geotechnical Engineering, 1990-06, PDF (2.5 MB)

Report presents the results of dynamic analysis studies of the response of the Puddingstone Dam, a primarily cohesive, homogeneous section, CSMIP-instrumented, compacted earth dam, located about 15 miles north east of Los Angeles, to the 1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake. The crest acceleration during the earthquake was 0.19g and maximum accelerations recorded at the abutments were on the order of 0.04g to 0.08g. Nonlinear modulus degradation and damping relationships for the compacted silty clay which comprises most of the embankment were modeled. The results of two dimensional finite element analyses were found to be in good agreement with the recorded field response. One dimensional columnar analyses were found to underestimate significantly the crest response as a result of the inability to model geometric effects or topographic amplification.

Available online: http://library.eerc.berkeley.edu/documents/GEOTECH/UCB-GT-90-01.pdf