Behaviour of Earth Dam under

Seismic Load Considering

Nonlinearity of the Soil

PRESENTED BY
RAHUL DAS
 Contents

 Introduction
 Types of failure of earth dam during
earthquake
 Method of analysis of earth dam
 Case study of earth dam
 Result and conclusion
 Introduction
 What is an earth dam?
 Earth dam is made of locally available material .
 It is economic
 It is also large in structure ,
 Store large amount of water,
 They are simple in construction
 Parts of Earth Dam
Parts of earth
dam-
I. Core
II. Shell
III. Cut off wall

Fig1-Earth Dam
 Linearity and Nonlinearity

 Linear means stiffness is constant

Fig2- linear and non-linear

 Nonlinear means stiffness changes with loading
 Types of nonlinearity
I. Material nonlinearity
II. Geometric nonlinearity
III. Contact nonlinearity
 Types of Failure of Earth Dam due to
Earthquake
 Primary failure-
 Slip of dam on weak foundation
 Overturning of earth dam
 Large crack develop

Fig-Teton dam failure in U.S.A Fig- Dam failure in Chi-Chi earthquake in China

Dam failure due to earthquake is 2%

 Dam Failure

Secondary failure-
 Piping through small cracks
 Overtopping

Fig- Dam failure

 Method of Analysis of Earth Dam

 Dynamic analysis is required to find acceleration, stresses,

deformation of dam during earthquake
 Finite element method is required for analysis, it has two
method
I. Flexibility method
II. Stiffness method
Two model is analysed in Geo Studio software ,one is linear
and the other is nonlinear
 Geo Studio Software

It has many functions

 SIGMA/W
 QUAKE/W
 SLOPE/W
 SEEP/W
 TEMP/W
 Case Study
Cross Section of Dam and Material Properties
Height 40 m
Length 270.5m
Width 15 m
Freeboard 4m
Cut off wall 12m below the ground surface
 Modelling of the Dam

 Total 814 nodes and 243 elements are used for modelling
the dam. The bottom of the structure of the dam is fixed in
x and y direction. The model is analysed at full reservoir
condition with water level 36 m.
 Formulation

 Equation of motion subjected to dynamic loading may be

expressed as-

Here [M] and [K] are the mass and stiffness matrix ,
[C] is damping matrix for the finite element system.
 STATIC ANALYSIS

 In situ stress is find out using SIGMA/W that exists

before earthquake using linear elastic and nonlinear elastic
(elastic-plastic) model respectively.

Fig- Contours of a)vertical stress b)horizontal stress for elastic model

 Static Analysis

 Fig-Contours of a)vertical stress b) horizontal stress for elasto-plastic model

 Maximum horizontal stress 720.25 kpa

 Maximum vertical stress 884.50 kpa
 Seismic Analysis

 Seismic analysis is done on QUAKE/W

 Damping ratio 10%
 Time history of Kashmir earthquake whose peak
.12g
 Modified peak .24g as the seismic zone is IV
 Time History of Earthquake

Fig –a) actual time history b) modified time history

Effect of Nonlinearity on Vertical Stress

Fig- Contours of vertical stresses a)linear b)nonlinear

Effect of Nonlinearity on Horizontal Stress

Fig-Contours of horizontal stresses a)linear b)nonlinear

Effect of Nonlinearity on Horizontal
Displacement

Fig-Contours of displacements a)linear b)nonlinear

Effect of Nonlinearity On Vertical Displacement

Fig-Contours of vertical displacements a)linear and b)nonlinear

Comparison of results
Reason of High Horizontal Displacement

Dynamic load =Fsinŵt

Stress=Force/Area=F/A
Displacement =(F/K)*Rd
Stiffness=K
Dynamic amplification factor = Rd
 Continue

 Hooke’s law does not hold for strong ground motion,

so soil is taken as nonlinear
 Conclusions

 Horizontal and vertical stresses, vertical displacement

almost similar in both the cases.
 Displacement is almost double in nonlinear model as
compare to linear.
 Reference

 Mohammad Asif Raja, Bal Krishna

Maheshwari(2016). “Behaviour of Earth dam under
seismic load considering non linearity of soils.
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