Calibration and Prediction of Seismic Behaviour of CFRD Dam for Performance Based Design

Dams have an important role in ensuring climate change resilience with limited available resources while balancing the needs for water and energy security for future. In this paper the behaviour of a tall CFRD dam located in a highly seismic area will be discussed. During the first impoundment, this concrete-faced rockfill dam (more than 150 m high) showed cracking of the parapet wall and damage to the joints between the parapet wall and the upstream face slabs. The broad objectives of this paper are to evaluate the available monitoring data and create a three-dimensional Finite Element (FE) model for dynamic behaviour. An extensive review of the deformation material parameters combined with the monitoring data during construction and impoundment was used to calibrate a stress-deformation 3D FE model. Material properties from both geophysical and geotechnical site investigations were used to develop the inputs for the non-linear time history analyses to estimate the permanent earthquake-induced deformations and stability within the dam body. Performance based criteria were used to confirm that the seismic displacements (horizontal and vertical) within the body of the dam are acceptable.