Abstract :
The present study set out to investigate the
nonlinear seismic response of the dam–reservoir–rock
foundation system, taking into consideration the effects of
change in the material properties of discontinuous foundation.
To this end, it is important to provide the proper
modeling of truncated boundary conditions at the far-end
of rock foundation and reservoir fluid domain and to correctly
apply the in situ stresses for rock foundation. The
nonlinear seismic response of an arch dam mainly depends
on the opening and sliding of the dam body’s contraction
joints and foundation discontinuities, failure of the jointed
rock and concrete materials, etc. In this paper, a time
domain dynamic analysis of the 3D dam–reservoir–foundation
interaction problem was performed by developing a
nonlinear Finite Element program. The results of the
analysis of Karun-4 Dam revealed the essential role of
modeling discontinuities and boundary conditions of rock
foundation under seismic excitation.
