Investigation of the Effect of Near and Far Fault Earthquake on Seismic Response of Controlled Concrete Gravity Dams with Rubber Damper

A large part of the dynamic force applied to the dam is the hydrodynamic force generated in the reservoir due dam and reservoir interaction. The nature and method of applying this force in near and far fault earthquake records on structures was different and structures behave differently against each of these types of records. One of the solutions to control the seismicity of the concrete gravity dam is to use seismic dampers at the interface of the dam and the reservoir to reduce the hydrodynamic pressure on the dam. Therefore, in this study to investigate the effect of damping on the seismic performance of a concrete gravity dam, two near fault and two far fault earthquake records were used for the analysis. Output responses including maximum response of dam crest displacement and 1st principle stress at heel have been selected as critical responses. Ansys software, based on finite element method, was selected for dam modeling and seismic analysis and Newmark method has been used to solve the dynamic equation. The results of the analysis show the positive effect of the isolation layer in reducing the seismic responses to the dam in both far and near earthquake fields. In addition, it can be said that rubber damper performs better in the near fault than in the far fault.