Earthquake Analysis of an Old Cyclopean Concrete Dam and Its Seismic Retrofit With Post-Tensioning Anchors.

Abstract eng:
The dynamic analysis and specially the seismic design of dams are an important area of research in the past years. This research has, however, focused on concrete or embankment dams. There are a significant number of dams in the world, which have built of rough masonry, mainly in the early 20th century when the use of concrete was not yet widespread. The dynamic behavior of these dams was not thoroughly investigated, and the seismic calculations in seismicity areas were carried out often under simplistic assumptions. After about a century, many of these dams are still in use and must fulfill the requirements of current anti-seismic standards. Using the finite element method can these structures now also be investigated in order to obtain important information about the seismic behavior of such structures during an earthquake. The article deals with the seismic analysis of a gravity dam with a height of about 50m, which was built of rough masonry in the early 20th Century. First, the properties of the material are analyzed computationally on the basis of a 2D finite element calculation at the meso-scale level in order to formulate the nonlinear constitutive model of the heterogeneous material for the whole model in a as realistic as possible way. Subsequently, the material constitutive law is applied as a continuous material for the seismic analysis of the dam. In the loading of the dam all other loads or influences such as hydrostatic pressure, pore pressures in the dam and the foundation rock, are taken into consideration. The analysis is performed for two seismic excitation cases (a) non-seismic upgrading, and (b) with a seismic upgrading with unbonded tendons. The nonlinear calculations are performed for these two cases, in order to quantify the contribution of the latter on the seismic response of the dam.

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