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ABSTRACT
The study includes observation during earthquake loading, the different methods of
seismic analysis of earth dams, such as the simplified methods, the empirical methods, the
equivalent-linear analyses and the non linear methods. The study presents numerical
analyses of the seismic behavior of homogeneous and cored earthen dams. The analysis is
first conducted for a simple case which concerns the elastic response of the earthen dam.
This analysis provides some indications about the response of the dam, mainly the
dynamic amplification and pore water generation. For the elastic analyses, a parametric
study is conducted for the investigation of the influence of major parameters such as the
mechanical properties of the earth material density and soil stiffness. If the post-
earthquake stability analyses indicate factors of safety against sliding above 1.0, the
expected amount of deformation can be estimated using several methods. The most
rigorous method is to use finite element or finite difference programs.
INTRODUCTION
Dams can be classified according to their purpose as diverting dams, storage dams and
detention dams. According to the materials used for its construction, dams are classified
as earth fill dams, rock fill dams, concrete gravity dams etc. Earth fill dam can be
classified into homogeneous and core dam. Homogeneous dam is one which uses same
material and core dam is one in which different materials are used. The core material can
be different from shell and it comprises of less permeability. The core can be designed to
be placed at the center of dam or at other locations.
Like most of engineering structures, earth dams may fail due to faulty design, improper
construction and poor maintenance practices, etc. The various causes of failure may be
hydraulic failure, seepage failure, piping through dam body, structural failure and due to
earthquake. An earthquake is a vibration of the earth produced by a rapid release of
energy (Tarbuck et. al. 1996). The main features include the focus, the location within the
earth where the earthquake rupture starts, and the epicentre, the point on the earth's
surface directly above the focus. Earthquakes have a greater effect on society than most
people think. These effects range from economical to structural to mental. An earthquake
1
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, P.E.S. College of Engineering, MANDYA 5710401,
Karnataka State, INDIA. Phone: 91-9448745759. e-mail: gopisiddappa@gmail.com
The first failure of a dam due to earthquake reported in the literature is Augusta Dam,
GA, during 1886 Charleston, SC earthquake. Worldwide, fewer than 30 dams have failed
completely during earthquakes (USCOLD 2000). These were primarily tailings or
hydraulic fill dams, or relatively small embankments of questionable design. Few large
embankment dams have been severely damaged. In 1925, an earthquake (M 6.3) caused
catastrophic slope sliding failure of the 25-feet high Sheffield Dam in Santa Barbara, CA.
This was the first recognition that shaking of embankments with low relative density
materials may cause liquefaction failures. The 2001 Bhuj (India) earthquake (M 7.7)
resulted in widespread soil effects and liquefaction in low-lying estuaries and young
alluvial deposits. Strong ground motion lasted more than 85 seconds, and lower-level
shaking several minutes. Numerous embankment dams were damaged in the epicenteral
area, including seven medium-sized (40 to 120 feet high) earth dams. Fourteen smaller
dams were also damaged, some extensively. The reservoirs were very low at the time of
the earthquake but liquefaction of the foundation caused moderate to severe failure of the
upstream and, locally, the downstream slopes of the dams.
Simplified procedures are used for small dams analysis or to assess the need for detailed
studies of large dams. Two common procedures are described in the following. Other
simplified approaches for estimating dam deformations can be found in the literature (e.g.,
Jansen, 1987; Romo and Resendiz, 1981). If liquefaction is of concern to the dam or its
foundation, the simplified procedure of Seed and Idriss (1970a) can be implemented for
dams with flat slopes. A better approach is to assess the liquefaction potential from
corrected field penetration data (Seed, 1983). Newmark (1965) computed earthquake-
induced displacements in embankments by assuming that movements occur when an
inertia forces on a rigid block of soils above a fixed potential failure surface exceed its
sliding resistance. He assumed that the slope deformed only during those portions of the
earthquake when the out-of-slope earthquake forces cause the pseudo static factor of safety
to drop below 1.0
A dam responds as a flexible body, and accelerations vary as a function of depth within the
embankment. To take this into account, Makdisi and Seed (1977) estimated the peak crest
acceleration ( max) from a specified response spectrum and a square-root-of-the-sum- of-
the-squares (SRSS) combination of the spectral accelerations of the first three modes of
Strain-dependent equivalent dynamic shear moduli and damping ratios as first introduced
by Seed and Idriss (1970a) are essential to EQL analyses. EQL response is sometimes
obtained for representative soil columns within the dam section using SHAKE91 (Idriss
and Sun, 1992). For prediction of the shear strength of an unsaturated soil, two
approaches had been proposed y Bishop (1959effective stress approach) and
Fredlund et al.(1978 independent stress variables approach). Many researchers have
demonstrated both theoretical and empirical formulations to estimate unsaturated shear
strength, e.g. the verification of the nonlinear change in cohesion of an unsaturated soil
(Escario and Sez1986) an analytical model based on a soilwater retention curve
(Vanapalli et al. 1996); an empirical formulation based on Bishops concept (Khalili and
Khabbaz 1998); the prediction of soil cohesion using hyperbolic equation (Lee et al. 2003).
The response and behaviour of earth structures subjected to earthquake shaking is highly
complex and multifaceted (Steven Kramer, 2005). Generally, there are the issues of:
(a) the motion, movement and inertial forces that occur during the shaking, (b) the
generation of excess pore-water pressures, the potential reduction of the soil shear
strength, (c) the effect on stability created by the inertial forces, excess pore-water
pressures and possible shear strength loses, and (d) the redistribution of excess pore-water
pressures and possible strain softening of the soil after the shaking has stopped.
The main objective of this investigation is to study the seismic behaviour of homogenous
and core earthen dam by using a finite element software QUAKE/W. QUAKE/W is a
geotechnical finite element software product used for the dynamic analysis of earth
structures subjected to earthquake shaking and other sudden impact loading such as
dynamiting or pile driving. The study includes the analysis to investigate the response of
the ground and the structure when it is subjected to an earthquake, and to examine the
possibility that there may be some generation of excess pore-pressures, which in turn
could lead to some liquefaction.
The dam has a granular under drain to control the seepage through the dam. The drain
itself is actually not included in the analysis, but is considered when defining the phreatic
surface. For the analysis, the geometry can be represented by two GeoStudio regions; one
region for the foundation and the second region for the embankment. The emphasis here
is on QUAKE/W because the cases involve earthquake shaking, but SEEP/W, SLOPE/W
and SIGMA/W are also used. SEEP/W is used to establish the long-term steady-state
seepage conditions and pore-pressures (Figure 2). On the downstream side, the water
table is taken at the ground surface. A granular blanket was placed between the original
dam and the downstream berm, assuming that the blanket functioned as intended, the
piezometric line will daylight somewhere in the granular blanket. This is modelled by
tagging the boundary between the dam and the berm as a potential seepage face.
Approximate conductivity functions and Ksat (Saturated conductivity) values are adequate
for this steady-state analysis, since the piezometric surface is high up in the dam and
much of the seepage flow is in the saturated zone. Also, the pore-pressure distribution is
not sensitive to Ksat.
The QUAKE/W Initial Static analysis type is conducted to establish the initial, total and
effective static stress distribution throughout the dam. This is done with a QUAKE/W
Static-type analysis or a SIGMA/W Insitu analysis: To compute the initial static stresses,
it is necessary to specify Poissons ratio and the total unit weight of the soils. The
previously computed SEEP/W pore-pressures are used in the static stress analysis. It is
important to include the weight of the reservoir water in the static stress analysis. This is
done by applying a fluid pressure boundary on the region edges in contact with the
reservoir and is illustrated in Figure 3. The resulting total and effective vertical stress
contours, as in Figure 4 and Figure 5.
Based on the SEEP/W pore-pressures and QUAKE/W static stresses, the factor of safety
is well above 2.0 as illustrated in Figure 6. This is consistent with the findings by Seed et
al., who concluded that the margin of safety against instability under the static conditions
was fairly high.
The purpose of the dynamic analysis is to determine the excess pore-pressures that may
develop, and identify zones where the soil may have liquefied. The Equivalent Linear
Dynamic analysis type is used here with an impervious boundary condition adopted as
shown in Figure 7. In QUAKE/W, selected points can be flagged where the results will be
saved for each and every time step while integrating through the earthquake record which
is defined as History Points. Two History Points marked as ( ) have been specified in
each model as shown in Figure 7.
Post-Earthquake Stability : SLOPE/W has the capability to use the specified steady-state
strength along the portion of a potential slip surface that passes through an element
that QUAKE/W has marked as liquefied. Figure 14 illustrates that repeating the pre-
earthquake stability analysis, but with post-earthquake pore-pressures and with steady-
state strengths in the liquefied zones, results in a factor of safety of greater than unity.
Post-Earthquake Deformations : There is strong evidence that the major slide movements
did not start until after the strong earthquake shaking. Seed et al. (1978) note that, the
slide probably did not occur until near or just after the end of the stronger earthquake
motions. The post-earthquake conditions can be taken into SIGMA/W to do a stress re-
distribution. Clearly some zones were over-stressed after the earthquake due to the
strength loss. With SIGMA/W, it is possible to attempt to re-distribute the stresses in the
over-stressed zones.
Figure 15 shows the displacement vectors from the post-earthquake SIGMA/W stress re-
distribution. The movements seem to be a reasonable approximation of what happened as
the movement started. In the crest area, the start of the movement is close to where the
head scarp was, and the movements are downward at a steep angle, which is consistent
with the actual head scarp. Figure 16 and 17 shows the contours of excess pore-pressure
and liquefied zone after earthquake shaking.
CONCLUSION
Many of the material properties used in this analysis are simple estimates. They are,
however, adequate for understanding the key issues and mechanisms. The response of the
homogeneous dam under earthquake loading with comparing to core dam was
investigated and evaluated. Concentration of stress in core model is less than
homogeneous model. Therefore, it can be concluded that the core dam section has better
static behaviour compare to simple homogeneous dam. Displacement, acceleration, and
spectral response in homogeneous dam are similar to those in core dam. Therefore, it
seems that natural frequency of homogeneous dam is close to that of core dam to the
frequency of earthquake. Changing material in core zone does not have enough effect on
RESULTS
Earth material density: Analyses were conducted for the dam subjected to the Horizontal
Earthquake Record max = 0.12g as input motion for the three densities of the core(18, 20
and 22 kN/m3 and three densities of the shell (16, 18 and 20kN/m3). Figure 19 shows the
influence of the variation of the core density on the seismic amplification in the dam. It
can be observed that this variation does not affect the dam response. This result is
expected, because the mass of the core presents a small part of the mass of the dam. The
influence of the variation of the shell density on the seismic amplification of the dam is
illustrated in Figure 20. It can be observed that the decrease in the shell density leads to
an increase in the dynamic amplification. This result is also expected, because the
decrease in the mass of the dam leads to an increase of its fundamental frequency as
shown in Figure 21.
0.2
0.1
0
-0.1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Time(sec)
Figure 19. Horizontal Acceleration Time History at the Dam Crest
0.1
0.05
0
-0.05
-0.1
-0.15
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
Time (sec)
0.4
0.2
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Period (sec)
Earth Material Stiffness : Analyses were also conducted for Horizontal Earthquake Record
max = 0.12g as input motion for three values of the Youngs modulus and elastic shear
modulus as shown in Table 6.
Figure 22 shows the influence of the variation of the shear modulus of the core on the
seismic amplification of the dam. It can be observed that this variation leads to a moderate
increase in the dynamic amplification. This increase results from the increase of the
fundamental frequency of the dams towards the dominate frequency of the loading.
CONCLUSION
The influence of the variation of the shearing modulus of the shell on the seismic
amplification in the dam is illustrated in Figure 23. It can be observed that the increase
in the shell shearing modulus leads to a significant increase in the dynamic amplification.
This result is also expected, because the increase in the shell shearing modulus leads to an
increase in its fundamental frequency towards the frequency of the major peak of the input
motion. The influence of the variation of the shear modulus of the foundation on the
dynamic amplification is depicted in Figure 24. It can be observed that an important
variation of this parameter (100%) slightly affects the seismic response of the dam.
Elastic analyses showed that the seismic loading induces mainly lateral displacement,
which increases with the distance from the dam foundation. The maximum value is
observed near the dam crest. The mechanical properties of the core (shear stiffness and
density) moderately affect the elastic response, while those of the shell affect significantly
the response of the dam.
0.2
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Period (sec)
Figure 22. Influence of the Core Stiffness on the Seismic Response of the Dam
0.6
(m/sec)
0.4
0.2
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Period (sec)
Figure 23. Influence of the Shell Stiffness on the Seismic Response of the Dam
0.6
0.4
(m/sec)
0.2
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Period (sec)
Figure 24. Influence of the Foundation Stiffness on the Seismic Response of the
Dam
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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