Seismic Analysis of an Earth-Rock Dam on Thick Alluvial Deposit

The nonlinear dynamic FEM was applied to analyze the dynamic response of a core-wall earth-rock dam on thick loess alluvial deposit. The dynamic responses of acceleration, dynamic displacement, permanent deformation and the liquefaction state of the dam were obtained. Meanwhile, both dynamic FEM limit equilibrium method and pseudo-static method were used to access the seismic resistance of dam slope stability. The results show that dynamic responses of acceleration and dynamic displacement are reasonable. The permanent deformation is mainly concentrated in the core wall. The downstream dam slope has enough seismic resistance stability. However, there will be big dynamic pore-water pressure in the dam foundation and the loess alluvial deposit will be liquefied during the earthquake. Therefore the resistance method of liquefaction should be adopted for the foundation.