2-D NON-LINEAR FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF FOLSOM DAM: SEISMICALLY INDUCED SEPARATION AND PORE PRESSURE ALONG THE SOIL-CONCRETE INTERFACE
The seismic soil-concrete interface stability of composite dams has been an area of interest to many researchers. However, the true interface behavior during a seismic event has not been well understood. During a ground shaking, bonding and de-bonding action along the interface may cause significant separation of soil and concrete surfaces, and such a separation may take place at any depth along the interface creating a stability concern for the overall dam. Moreover, the repetitive nature of bonding/debonding behavior may induce excess pore pressure along the interface, which in turn, may trigger a liquefaction failure or a hydraulic fracture in the soil. This study evaluates the potential for separation and excess pore pressure generation at the soil-concrete interface of Folsom Dam - located north-east of Sacramento, CA -using 2D Finite Element analysis software, GeoStudio-Quake/W. The separation and excess pore pressure distributions along the interface are investigated using nonlinear soil models with pore pressure generation capability and Koyna Dam and El-Centro earthquake ground motions.
Civil Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering, Transportation Engineering
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