Dynamic Soil Structure Interaction Study

The effect of the surrounding soil, as depicted by the soil-structure interaction effect, on the dynamic behavior of Brezina concrete gravity arch dam, located in El-Beyadh at the west of Algeria, is investigated in the present study. Both modal and transient analyses are performed for the dam, presented and discussed as a case study for this work. A three-dimensional finite element model (SOLID185) using ANSYS software is created to model the dam body and the adjacent soil. Three different seismic records having identical peak ground acceleration of 0.2g, assuming three different viscous damping ratios: 2%, 5% and 10%, are used in the analysis. The results of this analysis constitute a data base for a parametric study investigating the soil-structure interaction effect, that of the mass of soil foundation and that of the damping ratio on the dynamic behavior of Brezina concrete arch dam. Dynamic analyses for Brezina concrete arch dam for the three studied cases: dam without soil, dam with mass soil foundation and dam with massless soil foundation show that the presence of the soil in the model develops more stresses in the dam body, especially when the soil mass is considered in the model.