Investigating the the effects of valley’s shape on three dimensional dynamic responses of concrete gravity dams

Concrete gravity dams are one of the conventional structures for storing and controlling water resources. In recent years, due to large number of dam constructions, designers are encounter with narrow valleys which are not adequate for arch dam constructions. In recent decades, many researches have been done on the numerical modeling of concrete gravity dams, however most of these studies consider the dam and its foundation as an ideal two-dimensional model. In narrow valleys, it seems that two-dimensional modeling of these structures may lead to inaccurate results. In this thesis, the 3D behavior of the concrete gravity dams including dam-reservoir-foundation interactions under static and dynamic loads has been studied. The obtaining results for models with three different 20,100 and 350 meters width shows significant differences between two and three dimensional models. Observations from results indicated that the crest relative displacements and stress distributions as well as crack patterns are more similar for wide valleys and 2D model in compare with narrow valleys. In the other words, 2D models don’t have necessary adequacy for modelling gravity dams in narrow valleys and three dimensional studies should be conducted in such cases.