| Earthquakes and Structures Volume 10, Number 3, March 2016, pages 717-733 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12989/eas.2016.10.3.717 | |
Seismic evaluation of cemented material dams
-A case study of Tobetsu Dam in Japan | |
Amir Arefian, Ali Noorzad, Mohsen Ghaemian and Abbas Hosseini
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| Abstract [Full Text] | |
| Trapezoidal Cemented Sand and Gravel Dam, namely Trapezoid CSG, is a new type of dam. Due to lack of dynamic studies in the field of CSG dam, this research was performed to analyze Trapezoidal CSG dam using dynamic Finite element method with ABAQUS Software. To investigate possible earthquake-induced damages, fragility curves are plotted based on damage index, the length of the cracks created at the dam base and the area of cracked elements in the dam. The seismic analysis indicated that minimum and maximum tensions are generated in the heel and toe of the dam, respectively. According to the fragility curves, with increase in PGA, the possibility of the exceeding the defined limit state is increased. However, the rate of increment is significantly reduced after PGA=0.4 g. Also, the same result is achieved for the second limit state. The "area of cracked elements" is more conservative criterion than the "crack length at the dam base", especially at PGA<0.4 g. As conclusion, CSG dams, despite of being made of poor materials in comparison with concrete dams, show good resistance, and even in some situations, better performance than the weighted concrete dams. | |
| Key Words | |
| CSG dam; numerical analysis; fragility curves; concrete damage plasticity; damage index; limit state | |
| Address | |
| Amir Arefian: Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Ali Noorzad: Department of Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran Mohsen Ghaemian: Civil Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Abbas Hosseini: Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran | |
