Elasto‐Plastic Seismic Response of 3‐D Earth Dams: Application

Abstract

The procedure outlined in the companion paper is applied to compute the nonlinear response of an earth dam to a 3‐D input strong motion with recorded maximum acceleration of 1.2 g (in the upstream‐downstream direction). Special features of the nonlinear seismic response due to the highly strong shaking are explored. Because of the modal expansion concept utilized in the procedure, insight is gained into the contribution of different modes to the response of the dam at different locations. Finally, comprehensive comparisons are made with results obtained through a more elaborate nonlinear, 3‐D, finite element analysis of the dam. The comparison indicates that the proposed simplified analysis method can be used to reliably estimate the entire time history of all response quantities and the resulting permanent deformations of earth dams subject to earthquakes. In addition, it is found that the computed results agree reasonably well with those of the finite element analysis; further, the “modal” nonlinear procedure is found to be reasonably accurate and extremely efficient computationally.