Khan Mohammadi L, Vaseghi Amiri J, Navayi-nia B. Evaluation of Eulerian and Lagrangian Methods in the
Analysis of Concrete Gravity Dam Including Dam Water
Foundation Interaction under Earthquake. MCEJ 2011; 11 (4) :107-116
URL:
http://mcej.modares.ac.ir/article-16-6284-en.html
Abstract: (8947 Views)
Hydrodynamic pressure on the upstream face of the concrete dams under the effect of
earthquake is one of the most important parameters, in planning dams' structure in earthquake
zone. Because of the reservoir effect, dynamic analysis of concrete dams is more involved
than other common structures. This problem is mostly sourced by the differences between
reservoir water, dam body and foundation material behaviors. As a result, researches in this
case must be able to evaluate the response of dam with consideration of dam’s interaction
with reservoir and its foundation. This problem has been studied vastly by different
researchers.
The first research on the analysis of concrete gravity dam has been done by Westergaard in
1930 and hydrodynamic pressure on the dam face was obtained by some simplifications.
There were a lot of other researches which studied the seismic behavior of the dam-reservoir
system, including nonlinear behavior of the dam under pressure and also cavitation. In each
research, different modeling methods are presented which are divided into two main groups.
In first method which is called Eulerian method, pressure is the main unknown variable in
reservoir nodes. In the second method that its main unknown variable is displacement of
nodes is called lagrangian method. Each of the methods contain some advantageous and
disadvantageous.
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate possible advantages and disadvantages of both
methods. Specifically, application of the above methods in the analysis of dam-foundationreservoir
systems is leveraged to calculate the hydrodynamic pressure on dam faces. Within
the frame work of dam- foundation-reservoir systems, dam displacement under earthquake for
various dimensions and characteristics are also studied. To achieve this purpose, visual
C#.NET 2003 computer programming language is used in this investigation that produces
possibility of dynamic analysis of concrete dams under earthquake with system modeling by
both methods. Nine node elements for reservoir and eight node elements for dam and
foundation are used for both methods. Also newmark average acceleration method is used for
solving dynamic’s equilibrium equation.
Modares Civil Engineering Journal (M.C.E.L) Vol.11, No.4, Winter 2011
131
In this paper the response of the tallest, non-overflow monolith of Pine Flat dam in California,
which is 122 m high, to horizontal and vertical component of earthquake is computed. A
water depth of 116 m is considered in full reservoir condition, and the water has the following
properties: unit mass, 1000 kg /m3 , bulk modulus, K 2.07*109 kg/m2 , and pressure wave velocity,
w c 1440m/ s . The finite element model of reservoir consists of 12 isoparametric elements and it
extends upstream a distance of 366 m, three times the dam height. The dam consists of 20
isoparametric elements. The concrete of dam has the unit mass of 2500kg /m3 , young’s
modulus ofE 2.275*1010kg /m3, and poisson`s ratio of 0.25. The concrete of foundation has the
unit mass of , young’s modulus ofE 4.45*1010 kg / m3 f , and poisson`s ratio of
0.25 f . The peak acceleration of S69E and vertical components are 0.18g and 0.1g,
respectively.
The results of both Lagrangian and Eulerian methods for Pine Flat dam are quantitatively
evaluated and compared in different condition and following results are achieved:
1- In Lagrangian Method, there is only one variable in equilibrium equation and mass and
stiffness matrixes are symmetric. But there is not such a condition in Eulerian method. Also,
the numbers of unknown parameters are different in two methods. By considering these
differentiations, needed time for analysis of Pine Flat Dam under Taft earthquake ,with
mentioned characteristics, by Lagrangian method is 1.17 times more than needed time for
Eulerian method.
2- The effect of material on reservoir's bottom in absorbing energy and `reducing system's
response was considerable especially under vertical component of the earthquake. Results
indicate that this case is not affected by reservoir modeling method. By applying this effect,
the response will decrease about 15% under horizontal component and 60% under vertical
component of the earthquake.
3- By evaluating the effect of reservoir bottom's slope, it is concluded that in the case of rigid
foundation, the response by Lagarngian modeling is about 10% more than Eulerian one. With
the increase of slope, the response will decrease under horizontal component of earthquake
but it will decrease or increase about 13% under vertical component of the earthquake. In
other words, reservoir bottom slope has little effect on response of the system under both
vertical and horizontal component of earthquake. But this effect is not negligible.
4- It is included from the analyses that by decreasing the depth of reservoir the response will
decease up to 50 percent under horizontal component of earthquake. This amount is 80
percent under vertical component. Also in the case of decreased depth, response of
Lagarngian method is about 10% more than Eulerian method.
5-In all analysis, the assumption of rigid foundation results in greater answers than the cases
of flexible foundation.
Received: 2012/01/1 | Accepted: 2012/01/1 | Published: 2012/01/1