Seismic Response And Dynamic Deformation Analysis Of Shur River Dam

Seismic load has induced extensive deformations or caused failure in many dams during past earthquakes. As such, it is considered to be the governing load for the design of dams in the regions of moderate to high seismicity by dam designers. This paper discusses the methods and results of the seismic deformation analyses of an 84 m high water retaining rockfill dam with an asphaltic concrete core, located in a region of high seismicity in Iran. The purpose of the dam is to store raw and processed water for use in a copper production complex. The maximum crest settlement of the dam under three earthquake loadings was evaluated using simplified procedures and numerical dynamic analysis. Plane strain dynamic deformation analysis of the dam has been performed using the commercial software FLAC and its built-in Mohr-Coulomb elastic-plastic model. The main objective of these analyses has been to identify the earthquake induced movements that could lead to uncontrolled release of water. The predicted deformations are compared with the results of simplified analyses and the observed displacements in other embankment dams during past earthquakes. The relative movement of the asphaltic core with respect to the rockfill material on either side of the core was also studied.