C H A P T E R

16
Nonlinear Seismic Analyses
of a High Gravity Dam with
and without the Presence
of Reinforcement1
Yuchuan Long *, Chuhan Zhang y, Yanjie Xu y
*
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing
y
State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua
University, Beijing

O U T L I N E

16.1 Introduction 370

16.2 Constitutive Relations of Material Components 372
16.2.1 Plastic-Damage Model for Plain Concrete 372
16.2.2 Reinforced Steel Model without BondeSlip 374
16.2.3 Reinforced Steel Model with BondeSlip 375
16.3 Seismic Analyses of a Gravity Dam 376
16.3.1 Finite Element Mesh and Constitutive Models of Materials 376
16.3.2 Dynamic Properties of the Jin’anqiao Gravity Dam 378
16.3.3 Seismic Damage Analyses of the Jin’anqiao Gravity Dam 380
16.4 Conclusions 384
Acknowledgments 385
References 385

1
Engineering Structures 2009; 31: 2486e94. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd.

Seismic Safety Evaluation of Concrete Dams Copyright Ó 2013 Tsinghua University Press. Published
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-408083-6.00016-7 369 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
370 16. NONLINEAR SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A HIGH GRAVITY DAM

16.1 INTRODUCTION

To meet the enormous energy demands, several high gravity dams are
being constructed in high seismic risk zones of south-western China, e.g.,
Longtan (192 m), Xiangjiaba (161 m) and Jin’anqiao (160 m). The peak
ground accelerations of these dams calculated from current seismic-
resistant codes are 0.20, 0.222 and 0.399 g, respectively, with the design
criterion of 2% probability of exceedance occurring in 100 years. A strong
earthquake is therefore a great challenge to Chinese high dam construc-
tion, especially after the Wenchuan earthquake that occurred on May 12,
2008 (Richter scale: 8.0).
Although minor damage to high concrete dams in the form of limited
cracking is acceptable, extensive cracking resulting in structural insta-
bility and reservoir loss must be prevented even under extremely strong
earthquakes. Thus, it is necessary to model earthquake-induced cracking
behavior when evaluating the seismic safety of high gravity dams. To
improve the seismic-resistant capacity of concrete dams, Chinese engi-
neers have proposed using reinforcement in potential cracking zones, but
its effectiveness needs further investigation.
So far, two different approaches have been used to analyze the
nonlinear cracking behavior of concrete dams. One approach, called the
discrete crack model, simulates the discrete cracking observed in plain
concrete based on the fracture mechanics concept and uses an automatic
remeshing technique to model the crack propagation [1]. Javanmardi et al.
[2] combined the discrete crack model with a theoretical formulation for
transient water pressure along a tensile seismic concrete crack to study the
seismic stability of concrete gravity dams accounting for dynamic varia-
tion in the uplift force. Based on the concept of a discrete crack, Arabshahi
and Lotfi [3] investigated the earthquake response of gravity dams
including the damefoundation interface nonlinearities using interface
elements which can model the behavior of crack opening/closing and
sliding at the dam base. These two works can conveniently utilize the
discrete crack model without remeshing because the potential cracking
path is definitely at the damefoundation interface. If the cracking path is
unknown, a remeshing technique should be used to model the crack
propagation, and the computational cost will increase enormously.
Therefore, the discrete crack model is inefficient for conducting a seismic
cracking analysis of high gravity dams.
The alternative approach, called the smeared crack model, uses the
blunt crack band theory proposed by Bazant and Oh [4] to simulate the
concrete cracking behavior, and it is easily implemented into standard
finite element procedures. Using this model, Vargas-Loli and Fenves [5]
conducted a nonlinear seismic analysis of a gravity dam including tensile

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 16.1. INTRODUCTION 371

cracking of the concrete and the interaction between the dam and
compressible water. Their results show that concrete cracking is an
important nonlinear phenomenon and extensive cracking due to strong
earthquakes may affect the stability of the dams. Bhattacharjee and Leger
[6] developed a smeared crack model which considers the strain-rate
sensitivity of concrete fracture parameters, the softening initiation crite-
rion under biaxial loading and the behavior of crack opening/closing
under cyclic loading conditions. They applied the modified model to
investigate the seismic fracture and energy response of gravity dams and
discussed the significance of viscous damping models accounting for the
non-cracking structural energy dissipation mechanisms. Based on the
model proposed by Bhattacharjee and Leger [6], Ghaemian and Ghobarah
[7] investigated the effects of the damereservoir interaction on the
nonlinear seismic response of gravity dams in the time domain. To
conduct a seismic analysis of arch dams, Lotfi and Espandar [8] combined
the discrete crack approach with a non-orthogonal smeared crack method
to model the opening/closing behavior of contraction joints and concrete
cracking in the monolith. Although the smeared crack model has been
widely applied to seismic analysis of concrete dams, it is still difficult to
define rigorous evolution rules under multiaxial cyclic loading conditions
and model concrete cracking with other inelastic phenomena near the
fracture process zone [9].
Some researchers have used continuum damage mechanics to
investigate the seismic cracking behavior of gravity dams. Considering
the demand of thermodynamic consistency, Cervera et al. [10] devel-
oped an isotropic damage model which split the stress tensor into tensile
and compressive components and utilized respective damage evolution
laws about these two stress states to simulate the different damage
behavior of concrete in tension and compression. Moreover, this model
is extended to include rate dependence, which can benefit regularizing
the ill-posed problem of strain-softening materials [11]. Nevertheless, it
is still hard to model the damage behavior of concrete under cyclic
loading conditions because there is no representation of the inelastic
strain. Subsequently, Lee and Fenves [12] proposed a plastic-damage
model for concrete subjected to cyclic loading based on a general
damage concept that combines the degradation of elastic stiffness with
the evolution of inelastic strain and includes the effect of stiffness
recovery when the crack closes. This model has been used to analyze the
seismic damage response of the Koyna dam [13] and it obtained
a cracking pattern for the prototype dam that is comparable with the
experimental results [14e16].
To evaluate the effectiveness of the reinforcement measure, Long
et al. [17] developed a modified embedded-steel model by combining
the approach of stiffening reinforced steel [18] with the zoning method

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372 16. NONLINEAR SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A HIGH GRAVITY DAM

of lightly reinforced concrete [19]. While this model can simulate the
nonlinear seismic damage response of concrete dams with reinforce-
ment, it ignores the influence of the slip between the reinforced steel
and its surrounding concrete on the cracking response of the dams.
Kwak and Filippou [20,21] developed a reinforced steel model with
bondeslip which is embedded into a concrete element and includes the
bondeslip effect by incorporation of the equivalent steel stiffness. This
model is easily implemented into standard FE procedures and can be
used to investigate the influence of the reinforcement slip on the dam
responses.
This chapter first explains the constitutive models of concrete and
reinforced steel used herein. Then, nonlinear analyses are conducted to
investigate the seismic response of a 160 m high gravity dam. These
analyses account for several nonlinearities, for example tensile cracking,
plastic offset strain in tension, stiffness recovery when the crack closes
and the bondeslip effect. Numerical results are analyzed in great detail to
study the seismic damage mechanics of the gravity dam and evaluate the
effect of the reinforcement.

16.2 CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONS OF MATERIAL

COMPONENTS

For simplicity, the FE formulations of a high gravity dam without and

with the reinforcement are omitted because they can be previously pub-
lished work [13,17,20,21]. The constitutive models used herein are
explained in the following sections, including the plastic-damage model
of plain concrete and the reinforced steel model with and without
bondeslip.

16.2.1 Plastic-Damage Model for Plain Concrete

The stressestrain relation of the plastic-damage model developed by
Lee and Fenves [12] is expressed as follows:
p
sc ¼ ð1  DÞsc ¼ ð1  DÞEc ðεc  εc Þ (16.1)
p
in which sc and sc are the total and effective stress vectors; εc and ε c
denote the total and plastic strain vectors; Ec is the linear elastic stiffness
matrix corresponding to the undamaged state; and D denotes the scalar
damage degradation variable. To describe both tensile and compressive
degradation, D is defined as
D ¼ 1  ½1  Dc ðkc Þ½1  sðsc ÞDt ðkt Þ

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 16.2. CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONS OF MATERIAL COMPONENTS 373

FIGURE 16.1 Uniaxial constitutive relation of concrete under cyclic loading.

sðsc Þ ¼ s0 þ ð1  s0 Þrðsc Þ
8
>
> 0 sc ¼ 0
>
>
>
>
>
<P 3
(16.2)
rðsc Þ ¼ hsic i
>
> i¼1
>
> 3  
otherwise
>
> P  
>
: sc
i
i¼1

where Dt and Dc are the tensile and compressive damage variables; kt and
kc are the ratios of dissipating energy to fracture energy in tension and
compression, respectively; sic , i ¼ 1,2,3 denotes the principal value of the
effective stress; and h,i is the McCauley bracket as hxi ¼ (x þ jxj)/2.
Herein, the crack opening/closing behavior is modeled by multiplying
the parameters, which represents the elastic stiffness recovery during the
elastic unloading process from the tensile state to compression. s0 is
a constant to set the minimum value of s, and r is a weighted parameter
determined by the principal values of the current effective stress vector.
Figure 16.1 shows the uniaxial constitutive relation of concrete under
cyclic loading. s0 ¼ 1 represents the concrete fully recovering the initial
undamaged stiffness while s0 ¼ 0 ignores the stiffness recovery.
The difficulty involved in this model is the lack of a theoretical
definition of the tensile plastic offset for concrete. This offset occurs when
rough cracking surfaces come into contact during unloading and do not
realign because of shear slip along the cracking surfaces. This phenom-
enon is demonstrated by concrete tests [22,23]. Palermo and Vecchio [24]
proposed a plastic offset relation as

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374 16. NONLINEAR SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A HIGH GRAVITY DAM

p 2
εc ¼ 146ðεm m
c Þ þ 0:0523εc (16.3)
p
εc
where is the tensile plastic offset; and εm
c is
the maximum tensile strain
in the loading history. This proposed relation has been implemented into
the constitutive model of concrete to define the evolution of the elasto-
plastic surface.
Moreover, the degradation variable D is not convenient for evaluating
the damage degree of a concrete structure, and therefore the equivalent
crack opening displacement w defined in Eq. (16.4) is adopted as
a damage index for a plain or reinforced concrete structure in the
following numerical analyses:
w ¼ lc ecr ¼ lc Tn εcr
c
h i (16.4)
L1
εcr
c ¼ εc  Ec sc ; Tn ¼ a2x a2y ax ay

where ecr is the cracking strain; lc denotes the crack band width of
a cracked element, which is determined by the element dimension and
crack normal [4]; and ax and ay are directional cosines of the crack normal
corresponding to global axes x and y.

16.2.2 Reinforced Steel Model without BondeSlip

When conducting a seismic analysis of a reinforced gravity dam, the
constitutive model of the reinforcement should be taken into account in
addition to that of the plain concrete. If the bondeslip effect is ignored, the
stiffness contribution due to steeleconcrete interaction should be included
by stiffening the reinforcement. As proposed in the modified embedded-
steel model [17], the tensile stressestrain relation is formulated as
follows, assuming that the strain-softening branch of concrete is linear:
8
>
> Es εs 0 < εs < εt
>
>  q ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 
>
> 1
>
> Es εs þ ðEs εs Þ2 þ 4a2 fscr 2  bft εt < ε s < εf
>
<2
ss ¼  qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
>
> 1
>
> Es εs þ ðEs εs Þ2 þ 4a2 fscr 2  bft εf < ε s < εy
>
> 2
>
>
>
:
fy εy < εs

rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1r 1  r εs  εf
a ¼ ; b ¼
1  r þ nr r εt  εf
  (16.5)
1 Es
fscr ¼  1 þ n ft ; n ¼
r Ec

III. NONLINEAR EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE OF CONCRETE DAMS

 16.2. CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONS OF MATERIAL COMPONENTS 375

FIGURE 16.2 Tensile stressestrain curve of reinforced steel.

where ss and εs are the axial stress and strain of the reinforced steel; Es and
Ec denote the elastic modulus of the steel and concrete, respectively; r is
the effective ratio of reinforcement to concrete estimated according to the
CEB-FIP model code 1990 [25]; and ft and fy are the concrete tensile
strength and steel yielding strength, respectively. The characteristic
strains εt, εf and εy represent three key states: reaching the tensile strength
of the concrete, complete damage of the concrete and steel yielding at
the cracking section. The solid line shown in Fig. 16.2 is the tensile
stressestrain relation defined by Eq. (16.5).

16.2.3 Reinforced Steel Model with BondeSlip

Herein, the reinforced steel model with bondeslip developed by Kwak
and Filippou [20,21] is also used to analyze the seismic response of
a concrete dam with reinforcement. This model is embedded into
a concrete element and accounts for the bondeslip effect by incorporation
of the equivalent steel stiffness. The bondeslip constitutive relations
proposed by Eligehausen et al. [26] are implemented in the model, where
the bond stress s depends on s, the relative slip between reinforced steel
and concrete, and loading histories. As illustrated in Fig. 16.3, the
behavior of bond stress under cyclic loads comprises loading (monotonic
and reduced envelope), unloading, reloading and friction branches. The
reduced envelope represents the deterioration of the bond resistance
caused by the accumulation of dissipated energy during loading histories.
Based on experimental results, Eligehausen [26] proposed the formula-
tions of these branches and material parameters s1, s3, s1, s2, s3 and m
shown in Fig. 16.3(b) to define the monotonic envelope.

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376 16. NONLINEAR SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A HIGH GRAVITY DAM

FIGURE 16.3 Bondeslip constitutive relation [26].

In addition, the stiffness contribution of the steel is simulated using the

perfect elastoplastic model as expressed in Eq. (16.6). This stressestrain
relation is also illustrated in Fig. 16.2 with a dashed line.

Es εs 0 < εs < εsy ; fy
ss ¼ εsy ¼ (16.6)
fy εsy < εs Es

16.3 SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A GRAVITY DAM

16.3.1 Finite Element Mesh and Constitutive Models of

Materials
The Jin’anqiao gravity dam is located on the middle branch of the
Jinsha River in the Yunnan Province of China. Figure 16.4(a) shows
a typical non-overflow monolith of the dam, which is 160 m high with
a 150 m deep reservoir. Four-node plane strain quadrilateral iso-
parametric elements with 2  2 Gauss integration are utilized to discretize

FIGURE 16.4 Finite element and reinforcement layout.

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 16.3. SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A GRAVITY DAM 377

the rock foundation and dam structure. Herein, the maximum size of the
dam mesh is limited to 2.5 m for modeling the concrete cracking.
Moreover, the shading zone in Fig. 16.4 represents the dam intake whose
cross-stream thickness is 0.4 times as thick as the monolith.
To reduce the opening and extension of concrete cracks, three layers of
rebar are placed near the upstream and downstream faces with a stream
spacing of 300 mm. As shown in Fig. 16.4(c), the major reinforced steel is
36 mm in diameter and parallel to the dam slope with a cross-stream
spacing of 200 mm. Therefore, the ratio of the major reinforcement to
concrete is 0.025% for the monolith. The horizontal reinforcement, used as
a constructional steel bar, is 20 mm in diameter with a vertical spacing of
500 mm. Herein, the horizontal steel is ignored in the simulation because
it is parallel to the cracking surface and has little influence on the seismic
response of the dam. The method of reinforcement embedment is omitted
here because it can be found in the work of Long et al. [17] and Kwak and
Filippou [20,21].
Figure 16.5 shows the constitutive relations of the concrete, reinforced
steel and steeleconcrete interface, each with its own material constants. In
particular, only tensile nonlinearities are modeled for the concrete and

FIGURE 16.5 Constitutive relations and material constants.

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378 16. NONLINEAR SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A HIGH GRAVITY DAM

FIGURE 16.6 Design ground motion of Jin’anqiao dam.

reinforced steel because the linear analysis shows that the compressive
stresses are much less than their compressive strength.
After imposing the two static loads of gravity and hydrostatic pressure,
the design earthquake motions are input at the truncated boundary of the
foundation to conduct seismic analyses. The acceleration components of
the design earthquake and their response spectra are shown in Fig. 16.6.
In addition, the damereservoir interaction is modeled using the added
mass at the upstream face nodal points, and the energy dissipation of the
monolith is considered by the Rayleigh damping method with 5%
damping ratio. The traditional massless foundation approach is used
herein to account for the damefoundation interaction. Although this
model overestimates the dam response because it ignores the energy
dissipation resulting from the radiation damping at the far field, it is still
an important method for the seismic safety evaluation of concrete dams.
From an engineering point of view, the benefits due to radiation damping
are preferable to be used as the safety margin of a concrete dam. The
elastic modulus of the rock is 19.5 GPa in the following analyses.

16.3.2 Dynamic Properties of the Jin’anqiao Gravity Dam

Natural frequency extraction and linear elastic analysis are first con-
ducted to investigate the dynamic properties of the Jin’anqiao gravity
dam. The first four frequencies are listed in Table 16.1 and their corre-
sponding vibration modes are shown in Fig. 16.7. Because the ratio of
reinforcement to concrete is extremely small, the natural frequencies
obtained with the reinforcement are slightly higher than those without
strengthening and their proportional error is no more than 1%.
Figure 16.8 shows the envelope of the algebraically maximum principal
stress calculated assuming that the concrete is linear elastic. Two potential
cracking regions appear near the upstream and downstream faces where
the stress is larger than the tensile strength of concrete, 2.30 MPa. More-
over, stress concentration occurs in the shading zone shown in Fig. 16.8,

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 16.3. SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A GRAVITY DAM 379

TABLE 16.1 Natural Frequencies of the Jin’anqiao Gravity Dam

Frequency (Hz)
Analysis case Mode I Mode II Mode III Mode IV

PC 1.6091 3.1684 3.4638 6.3654

RC1 1.6104 3.1693 3.4685 6.3778

RC2 1.6101 3.1693 3.4675 6.3706
PC: plain concrete damage analysis; RC1: reinforcement analysis without bondeslip; RC2: reinforcement
analysis with bondeslip.

FIGURE 16.7 Vibration modes of Jin’anqiao dam (amplification factor: 10).

FIGURE 16.8 Envelope of

maximum principal stress
obtained from the linear elastic
analysis.

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380 16. NONLINEAR SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A HIGH GRAVITY DAM

which indicates that concrete cracking may initiate at the two slope-
change points near the upstream face.

16.3.3 Seismic Damage Analyses of the Jin’anqiao Gravity

Dam
Three sets of analyses, namely the plain concrete damage case and
reinforcement cases with and without bondeslip, are conducted to
simulate the seismic response of the Jin’anqiao gravity dam. Each set
accomplishes a parameter study of the constant s0 which represents the
stiffness recovery occurring from tension to compression.
Figure 16.9 shows the stream displacement history at the dam crest for
the combined static and earthquake loads, with positive displacement in
the downstream direction. The results are arranged into two groups
according to the stiffness recovery constant s0, each compared with the dam
response calculated from the linear elastic analysis (the short dashed line).

FIGURE 16.9 Stream displacement at the dam crest.

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 16.3. SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A GRAVITY DAM 381

For each group of results, the downstream displacements due to the

static loads (about 2.2 cm) and dynamic dam responses before cracking
initiation (6.5 s) are closely coincident with those calculated from the
linear elastic analysis. This means that the reinforcement has little effect
on the dam deformation when the concrete remains linear elastic.
Although successive impulses cause accumulated concrete damage
which gradually increases the influence of the reinforcement on the dam
stiffness, there is only a slight difference in the horizontal displacement
obtained with and without strengthening.
A significant difference appears in the postcracking displacement
between the above-mentioned two groups. The displacement history
calculated assuming s0 ¼ 0 has similar oscillating regularity to that
obtained in the linear elastic analysis and there is little, if any, residual
deformation compared with the initial displacement when imposing the
seismic load. However, a remarkable downstream deviation appears in
the dam response assuming s0 ¼ 1 and then a residual displacement of
about 3.5 cm occurs with respect to the equivalent deformation caused by
the static loads.
The evolution of the maximal crack opening displacement calculated
assuming s0 ¼ 0 and s0 ¼ 1 is shown in Figs 16.10 and 16.11. In addition to
the dam heel, concrete cracks initiate at the two slope-change points near
the upstream face where high tensile stresses are obtained in the linear
elastic analysis. The initiation and propagation of these cracks cause the
stress redistribution in the dam and the crack opening/closing behavior
has a significant influence on the cracking patterns.
The cracks near the upstream face close when the earthquake impulses
result in the dam deformation towards upstream. Because s0 ¼ 0 means
that no stiffness recovery exists when the crack closes, the degrading
stiffness due to tensile damage will be used to compute the compressive
stress. To resist the inertia force, high tensile stress appears near the
downstream slope which may exceed the tensile strength of the concrete,
and concrete cracking initiates. Since no stiffness recovery occurs when
the crack closes, the compressive deformation caused by gravity and the
hydrostatic loads will be large enough to remove the influence of the
accumulated plastic offset strain in tension, and therefore no residual
displacement appears at the dam crest, as shown in Fig. 16.9(a).
When assuming s0 ¼ 1, the concrete fully recovers its initial undam-
aged stiffness once the crack closes at the plastic offset strain (illustrated
in Fig. 16.1). The stiffness recovery prevents the stress near the down-
stream slope from exceeding the tensile strength of concrete and the
upstream cracks propagate almost horizontally towards downstream.
With the accumulation of concrete damage, the compressive deformation
due to gravity and the hydrostatic loads will not counteract the influence
of the tensile plastic offset strain, and the downstream deviation of the

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382 16. NONLINEAR SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A HIGH GRAVITY DAM

FIGURE 16.10 Cracking evolution assuming s0 ¼ 0.

horizontal displacement appears. Therefore, it is concluded that the

combined effects of tensile plastic offset strain and stiffness recovery
cause the residual deformation of the dam. To accurately model the
damage response of the dam, it is necessary to conduct cyclic tests of the
mass concrete to calibrate the stiffness recovery constant s0.
As shown in Figs 16.10 and 16.11, similar cracking patterns are
obtained with and without the presence of reinforcement for a fixed value

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 16.3. SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A GRAVITY DAM 383

FIGURE 16.11 Cracking evolution assuming s0 ¼ 1.

of s0. Although assuming s0 ¼ 1 overestimates the stiffness recovery effect,

its results are more credible because it accounts for the crack opening/
closing behavior of the concrete. Therefore, the effects of the reinforce-
ment are evaluated based on the results obtained assuming s0 ¼ 1.
As a result of the reinforced steeleconcrete interaction, secondary
cracks appear in the vicinity of the major crack, and they reduce the
maximum opening and extension of the major crack. Figure 16.12 shows
the maximum crack opening displacement and extension of the major
crack obtained assuming s0 ¼ 1. Herein, the reinforcement reduces the

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384 16. NONLINEAR SEISMIC ANALYSES OF A HIGH GRAVITY DAM

FIGURE 16.12 Maximum opening displacement of the major crack assuming s0 ¼ 1.

maximum opening of the major crack from 12 mm to 6 mm and decreases

its extension from 44 m to 40 m. Although the presence of the secondary
cracks near the upstream face has some drawbacks from a structural point
of view, e.g., uplift pressure develops on the cracking surfaces, the rein-
forcement has some effect on reducing the maximum opening and
extension of the major crack, and what is more, this strengthening
measure is beneficial in maintaining the integrity of the dam after concrete
cracking. Since s0 < 1 in reality, concrete cracking may occur in the
upstream and downstream zones during an earthquake and the rein-
forcements are helpful in preventing the upper part of the dam from
destabilizing. In addition, the effect of the current strengthening plan
seems insufficient because of the small ratio of reinforcement to concrete,
and thus it should be applied to the dam combined with other aseismic
measures, e.g., crack-inducing joints and crest dampers.
Furthermore, there is only a slight difference in the displacement
histories and cracking patterns obtained from the reinforcement analyses
with and without bondeslip. This shows that the modified embedded-
steel model is applicable to analyzing the seismic response of a rein-
forced gravity dam.

16.4 CONCLUSIONS
Nonlinear seismic analyses of a high gravity dam with and without the
presence of reinforcement are conducted to investigate its dynamic
damage response and evaluate the effectiveness of the strengthening
measure. The analyses account for several nonlinearities such as the

III. NONLINEAR EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE OF CONCRETE DAMS

 REFERENCES 385

tensile cracking, the plastic offset strain of the cracked concrete in tension,
the stiffness recovery behavior when the crack closes and the bondeslip
effect. Based on the comparison of these results, it is concluded that:
1. The stiffness recovery constant s0 has a significant influence on the
seismic response of the Jin’anqiao dam, e.g., the stream displacement
history, residual deformation and cracking patterns. Residual
displacement will occur in the dam owing to the combined effects of
tensile plastic offset strain and stiffness recovery existing in the
concrete. To accurately simulate the dam response, cyclic tests of the
mass concrete should be conducted to calibrate the stiffness recovery
constant and to obtain the rules of the tensile plastic offset strain.
2. There is little difference in the dam response calculated from the
reinforcement analyses with and without bondeslip. Therefore, the
modified embedded-steel model used herein is applicable to
evaluating the effectiveness of the reinforcement strengthening.
3. Although the current strengthening plan has a slight effect on
decreasing the seismic deformation of the dam, the reinforcement can
reduce the maximum opening and extension of the major crack. What
is more, it is beneficial in maintaining the integrity of the dam and
preventing the upper part from destabilizing.
4. The presence of the secondary cracks resulting from the reinforcement
has some drawbacks from a structural point of view, e.g., uplift pressure
may develop on the cracking surfaces and cause dam instability.
However, this can be solved by impermeable rehabilitation after the
earthquake.
Although the reinforcement is beneficial in improving the seismic-
resistant capacity of the Jin’anqiao dam, the effect of the current strength-
ening plan seems insufficient from an engineering point of view. Therefore,
further studies should be conducted to investigate the effect of the
integrated earthquake-resistant measures by combining the reinforcement
with other techniques, e.g., crack-inducing joints and crest dampers.

Acknowledgments
Financial support for this study was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (grant nos 90510018 and 90715041) and the National Basic Research Program of China
(973) (grant no. 2007CB714100). This support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would
also like to thank Drs Jin Feng and Zhou Yuande for their suggestions in the study.

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III. NONLINEAR EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE OF CONCRETE DAMS