Dam-Reservoir interaction analysis based on Scaled Boundary Finite Method and Finite Element Method

This paper proposes and validates a new formulation on the dynamic response of dam-reservoir system, including water compressibility, absorption of the boundary of the reservoir, the earthquake excitation from different directions and the radiation condition boundary at infinity. The impounded water is modeled by Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method, and discretization only at the boundary coincide with the dam face is needed, which is less than the Boundary Element Method, in addition no fundamental solution required. For the dam body, the tradition approach called Finite Element Method is employed. Coupled with the dam and the impounded water by the same displacements at the dam face, dynamic response of the dam-reservoir system including dam flexibility can be evaluated. To verify the newly developed method, the numerical examples including gravity dams are employed. In particular, the characteristics of the dam flexibility on the dynamic response of the dam-reservoir system are investigated.