Investigation of the Effects of Nonlinear Behavior of Concrete on Seismic Performance of Arch Dams Using Finite Element Method

In this research the effects of nonlinear behavior of concrete on seismic performance of double curvature arch dam have been investigated. ANSYS software was used for analysis of the model which is based on finite element method. The Morrow Point double curvature arch dam is selected as the seismic analysis case study model and the interaction effect of dam, reservoir and foundation has been considered in the model. To investigate the seismic behavior of dam the El Centro earthquake components has been applied to the model. Both linear and nonlinear behavior of concrete has been investigated by dynamic analysis separately. Results of the displacement of dam crest and principle stresses have been extracted and compared. The results of the analysis have shown the effects of nonlinearity behavior of the concrete on the responses which means that the nonlinearity behavior of concrete would increase the displacement of dam crest and decrease principle stresses. The results have shown that by applying the nonlinearity behavior of concrete, the maximum structural capacity can be used which leads to increasing the accuracy in the field of linearity and nonlinearity material behavior to offer optimal models.