Modeling of a Dam Under Seismic Excitation with a Staggered Solution Method for the Fluid-Structure Interaction

A dam under seismic excitation contains several multi-physics coupled systems that are of interest in computational modeling. The greatest heterogenous coupled systems are the fluid-structure interaction between the fluid and the dam as well as the fluid and the soil. In addition, there is a region near the dam that is subject to bulk cavitation, where the fluid pressure drops below the vaporization pressure of the fluid and consequently the water’s elastic modulus drops to near zero. During this report we investigate the structure equations, the fluid equations, the coupling of the two systems, and the staggered solution procedure for the time stepping of the systems. Silent boundaries for the finite modeling domains are briefly discussed. Existing models and methods are used for the analysis of the systems and the coupling; thus, providing a benchmark model for future research for this heterogeneous coupled system.