AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION INTO EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED FAILURE OF MEDIUM TO LOW HEIGHT CONCRETE GRAVITY DAMS

A suitable model material was developed to construct scaled models of a 30 m high prototype concrete gravity dam monolith and the experiment al technique perfected for testing the models, till failure, on the EP SRC earthquake simulator at Bristol University. A series of shaking ta ble tests was performed with the aim of assessing the possible failure mechanisms of medium to low height darns under simple motions and sim ulated earthquakes. Tests were conducted with and without the presence of hydrostatic pressure. The hydrodynamic pressure was simulated usin g Westergaard's added mass approach. Base cracking was observed to be the main failure mechanism and a tendency of the models to slide and r ock after the full crack development at the interface was also observe d in some cases.