Nonlinear seismic response analysis of arch dam-foundation systems- part I dam-foundation rock interaction

The arch dam–foundation rock dynamic interaction and the nonlinear opening and closing effects of contact joints on arch dam are important to the seismic response analysis of arch dams. Up to date, there is not yet a reasonable and rigorous procedure including the two factors in seismic response analysis. The methods for the analysis of arch dam–foundation rock dynamic interaction in frequency domain are not suitable to the problem with nonlinear behaviors, in this paper, so an analysis method in time domain is proposed by combining the explicit finite element method and the transmitting boundary, and the dynamic relaxation technique is adopted to obtain the initial static response for dynamic analysis. Moreover, the influence of arch dam–foundation dynamic interaction with energy dispersion on seismic response of designed Xiaowan arch dam in China is studied by comparing the results of the proposed method and the conventional method with the massless foundation, and the local material nonlinear and nonhomogeneous behaviors of foundation rock are also considered. The reservoir water effect is assumed as Westergaard added mass model in calculation. The influence of the closing–opening effects of contact joints of arch dam on the seismic response will be studied in another paper.