NONLINEAR HYDRODYNAMIC PRESSURES BY EARTHQUAKES ON DAM FACES WITH ARBITRARY RESERVOIR SHAPES

A finite-differnece scheme is presented to calculate for nonlinear con ditions the hydrodynamic pressures acting on the rigid dam faces durin g earthquakes. The two dimensional geometry of the dam face may be non -vertical and the reservoir bottom non-horizontal. Nonlinearity of fre e surface flow and convective acceleration are included in the analysi s. The numerical results of the onset hydrodynamic pressures acting on a constant-slope dam face and reservoir bottom due to a constant grou nd acceleration compare very well with those of the exact solutions. S mall variations reflect the minor difference of the reservoir geometry between those two cases. Numerical results are for dam faces and comp ared with experimental and alternative numerical solutions. The rises of the water surface and the increases of hydrodynamic pressure on dam faces are also reported.