The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Earthquake Stress Analysis in Earth Dams

Clough, Ray W.; Chopra, Anil K.

UCB/SESM-1965/08, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1965-07, 24 pages (480.2/C58/1965)

The finite element method is here extended to the dynamic analysis of two dimensional stress systems. The method involves calculation of vibration mode shapes and frequencies making use of stiffness matrix evaluated by the finite element method and a mass matrix formed by lumping the mass at the finite element nodal points. Dynamic response is then calculated by mode-superimposition method, the response of each mode being obtained by step-by-step integration. The method is demonstrated by applying the vertical and horizontal acceleration components of the 1940 El Centro earthquake to the analysis of a triangular earth dam cross section treated as an elastic plane-strain problem.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-65-08.pdf (3 MB)