Nonlinear dynamic behavior of Pamukcay Earthfill Dam

Abstract

Water and energy supplies are the key factors affecting the economic development and environmental improvement of Turkey. Given their important role and the fact that a large part of Turkey is in seismically active zones dams should be accurately analyzed since failure could have a serious impact on the local population environment and on a wider level could affect the economy. In this paper, a procedure is proposed for the static, slope stability, seepage and dynamic analysis of an earth dam and the Pamukcay embankment dam. The acceleration time history and maximum horizontal peak ground accelerations of the Bingol (2003) earthquake data was used based on Maximum Design Earthquake (MDE) data. Numerical analysis showed that, the Pamukcay dam is likely to experience moderate deformations during the design earthquake but will remain stable after the earthquake is applied. The result also indicated that, non-linear analysis capable of capturing dominant non-linear mechanism can be used to assess the stability of embankment dams.