Investigation of Uplift force effects on Seismic Damage of Concrete Gravity Dam in the Near-Fault and Far-Fault Ground Motions:Case Study Shafaroud Dam

Uplift force has significant role on dynamic response of concrete gravity dams and also seismic response of dams in near field motion can be considerably different from those observed in the far field and the near –fault ground motions can cause considerable damage during an earthquake. This paper presents results of study aimed at evaluating the uplift force effects in the near-fault and far-fault ground motions on nonlinear dynamic response and seismic damage of concrete gravity dams including dam-reservoir-foundation interaction. For this purpose, 3 as-recorded earthquake records which display ground motions with an apparent velocity pulse are selected to represent the near-fault ground motion characteristics. The Shafaroud gravity dam, which is selected as a numerical application, is subjected to a set of as-recorded near-fault and far-fault strong ground motion records and three different distribution of uplift force are assumed. The results obtained from the analysis of the dam subjected to each fault effect are compared with each other. It is seen from the analysis results that the uplift force, which has influence on the dynamic response of concrete gravity dam-reservoir-foundation systems subjected to near-fault ground motion, as has the potential to increase damage in the dam body but at far-fault motion uplift force can be neglected.