Seismic response of concrete gravity dam-ice covered reservoir-foundation interaction systems

Abstract

This paper examines the ice cover effects on the seismic response of concrete gravity dam-reservoir-foundation interaction systems subjected to a horizontal earthquake ground motion. ANSYS program is used for finite element modeling and analyzing the ice-dam-reservoir-foundation interaction system. The ice-dam-reservoir interaction system is considered by using the Lagrangian (displacement-based) fluid and solid-quadrilateral-isoparametric finite elements. The Sariyar concrete gravity dam in Turkey is selected as a numerical application. The east-west component of Erzincan earthquake, which occurred on 13 March 1992 in Erzincan, Turkey, is selected for the earthquake analysis of the dam. Dynamic analyses of the dam-reservoir-foundation interaction system are performed with and without ice cover separately. Parametric studies are done to show the effects of the variation of the length, thickness, elasticity modulus and density of the ice-cover on the seismic response of the dam. It is observed that the variations of the length, thickness, and elasticity modulus of the ice-cover influence the displacements and stresses of the coupled system considerably. Also, the variation of the density of the ice-cover cannot produce important effects on the seismic response of the dam.