Seismic failure modeling of concrete dams considering heterogeneity of concrete

Study on the failure process of high concrete dams subjected to strong earthquakes is crucial to reasonable evaluation of their seismic safety. Numerical simulation in this aspect involves dynamic failure analysis of big bulk concrete dam subjected to cyclic loading. The Rock Failure Process Analysis (RFPA) proposed by C.A. Tang, with successful applications to failure modeling of rock and concrete specimens mainly subjected to static loading, is extended for this purpose. For using the proposed model, no knowledge on the cracking route needs to be known beforehand, and no remeshing is required. Simulation of the whole process of elastic deformation, initiation and propagation of microcracks, severe damage and ultimate failure of concrete dams in earthquakes with a unified model is enabled. The model is verified through a shaking table test of an arch dam. Finally a practical gravity dam is employed as a numerical example. Considering the uncertainty in ground motion input and concrete material, typical failure process and failure modes of gravity dam are presented. Several small cracks may occur due to tension particularly at dam neck, dam faces and dam heel, and a few of them evolve into dominant ones. Relatively smaller earthquake may cause damage to the dam neck while a bigger one may bring on cracks at lower parts of the dams. Cracking at the dam bottom may incline to a direction almost perpendicular to the downstream face after propagating horizontally for a certain distance when the shaking is strong enough.

► A unified model for simulating dynamic response of concrete dams including failure is presented. ► Concrete heterogeneity approximated by random distribution of material properties. ► New perspectives concerning seismic failure of high gravity dams are obtained.